Try again, Clementine
by To aru super fan
Summary: Clementine was slowly deprived of everyone she held dear. With each person she lost she became more cold and calculating. So when a bitten Clementine and AJ are trapped inside of the barn with a single bullet left in the gun, she makes the obvious choice. After her death, she wakes up in her eight year old body, only days before the dead started walking. What choices will she make?
1. Prologue

Clementine's head started to get hazy and she started to feel weaker. She knew what was happening and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was dying.

The infection was spreading and she would die and become one of them. She knew what she had to do...or what AJ had to do. She looked at her poor little goofball and saw an image of her younger self when she had to shoot Lee.

The poor kid was a crying mess. He held the gun with both hands but was unable to bring himself to pull the trigger.

Seeing him like this she spoke quiet voice. "AJ, come here."

He slowly opened his tear filled eyes and saw Clementine with her arm weakly stretched out towards him. She looked half dead already. Her eyes were yellowing and her skin was deathly pale. He felt a wave of sadness immediatly wash over him when he looked at her.

He walked over to her and she pulled him into an embrace, smearing the walker blood that was on AJ on her own cloths. Not that she cared for it. She wouldn't need them anymore.

"Everything is going to be okay AJ. Even though I won't be there, you'll still have the kids at the school. They'll take care of you." she spoke softly to him.

"But they aren't you...Clem." he muttered sadly.

"I know ,but now you need to go." she said releasing him from her embrace.

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but now I see that its to much for you." She said.

"What if we cut off the leg?"

Clementine was silent for a moment before she replied.

"Look at me AJ, its too late for me. The infection progessed to far." as if it was on cue, she coughed into her fist and she felt something warm land on her hand. She looked and saw that it was her own blood.

AJ's eyes widened.

She reached out her hand and said ."Give me the gun AJ." the tone that she used made it clear that there was not going to be an argument over it.

He obeyed and placed the gun into her open palm.

"Thank you."

He stood up and picked up the axe that he left on the floor after he gutted the walker.

He started walking to the barn door and began to open the door. He took one last look at Clementine.

Then he left.

Clementine watched AJ's small form slipped between the opening he made in the door for himself.

After a couple of moments she felt a single tear fall from her eye.

Then another.

And another.

Clementine realised that she was crying.

'It's been years since I've felt this sad. I guess this is proof about how important AJ is to me.'

Then suddenly she was hit by a wave of fatigue and felt her thoughts slipping away from her.

"It's time."

She lifted the gun and pointed it to the side of her head.

"Goodbye AJ."

-Line break-

Its need five minutes since AJ left Clementine in the barn. He thought back at it and wondered what could he have done to save her.

'I should have shot the walker before it grabbed her.' He thought angerly.

He began to slow down as he begin to beat himself up over it.

'I could have-'

_BA__NG_

A sound broke his train of thought.

The unmistakable sound of a single gunshot rang in the distance. He gripped his axe and bit back tears.

"Goodbye Clem."

**Prologue End-**

**AN: So what do you think? This is my first attempt at making a fic so tell me how I did in the reviews.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Reviewer response**-

CRed1988:I like it. I wonder will Clementine save her babysitter Sandra?

**Me: ****Thank you for reviewing. It is possible that she could, but improbable.**

Donald Trump: I hope you do more with this story. Given Clem's current age it might be best if you have her go the pretend psychic route. She can not really do much until she has more muscle.

**Me: Thank you for reviewing, but I don't plan to do that because this Clementine isn't one to reveal something as Important as that.**

Worker72:Another attempt at Re:Zero Clem. Well I wish you luck but I am not banking on it ever going that far. People always get bored and move on to another project before to long. I expect you will be no different. Most of them do not even reach Savannah.

**Me: Thank you for the review. I've watched Re:Zero however this is not an attempt to do something like that. This is a hard restart. I am not at all trying to give Clementine infinite lives. The only simillarities that you'll see is at she holds knowledge from the future. She is above trying to kill herself to find out if she has some crazy power.**

undyingrage98489: I am begging you to continue this story and finish it. I love this idea, and have been contemplating making one myself, but could never find the motivation.

**Me: Thank you and don't worry, I don't have any plans on stopping as of now. Updates might slow down because of school.**

Guest: Read the description and was interested. Then saw you didn't even get to that part. I'm very interested, as I've seen a doc about clem and lee coming back into their bodies at the early stage of the apocolapse. My only critism is that you make the chapters longer. You dont have to rush things, just make them long and good, and people will like it.

**Me: A special thanks for you because of your constructive critism. I do plan to write at least 2K words for each chapter. The prologue is an exception because I had just wanted to get it out of the way first. I'm also glad that I was able to interest you because I worked hard on the summary to make sure it was interesting.**

**AN: Hello everyone, in this chapter you will clearly be able to see how much Clem's thinking changed from her troubles. **

-Line break-

It was dark.

Clementine was certain that she was dead. Her was brain scrambled after she pulled the trigger. So why was it that she could still think clearly? Was this the afterlife? If that was the case then it was disappointing. Being unable to speak, hear, or see anything. Would she sit her in this limbo until she went insane? To think ,and think ,and think until she couldn't any longer?

Why couldn't she finally be at peace with Lee and everyone else?

Why...?

Before she could sink further in her negative thoughts, a small light appeared in her vision. The light began to expand and competely fill her sight.

For a moment all she saw was milk white that stuck in her vison before it slowly began to clear up. She was welcomed to the sight of a window with sunlight beaming through the curtains. She winced at the brightness, and put her hand infront of her face to shield her eyes from its intensity. When she did that she noticed something.

Were her hands always this tiny?

Clementine sat up and realised that it was her old room.

She looked around to confirm it. She was right it was her own room from all that time ago.

Could it be...that everything was a bad dream?

No, everything that happened was all to real for it to be a dream.

So what was this?

She got out of the bed and walked over to the window. She was too short to see out it properly so she stood on her tippy toes, and what she made her freeze.

"No walkers?" There wasn't much to see but a guy that was washing his car. The guy noticed her staring so he waved awkwardly at her.

In response she waved back and left the window.

Was this the afterlife or was she in world where walkers didn't exist?

She opened the room door and rushed down the hallway before she crashed right into something.

Clementine fell on her butt and muttered

"Ouch"

"Oh crap, are you okay Clementine?" She looked up and saw her babysitter Sandra crouched down, looking at her worriedly.

"...I'm fine" inspecting her closely.

Sandra noticed this and asked.

"Is something on my face?"

Clementine simply shook her head in response and picked herself up. She was going to stroll past by her but was stopped when Sandra put a hand on her shoulder.

"You stayed up late last night didn't you?" she said acussingly.

Clementine stayed slient.

Sandra took this as an admittance of guilt and sighed.

"I knew it. I was going to wake you earlier but I thought you needed some more sleep."

"Thank you."

"But don't think I'm letting you off the hook. You're going to bed extra early tonight." She said sternly.

Clementine pretended to be saddened by this and looked down at her feet.

After a few seconds she heard a bark of laughter come from her babysitter.

"I'm only kidding kiddo."Sandra said.

Clementine looked at her with faux surprise in her eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes really." She ruffled Clementine's curly hair.

"I'm going to take a nap. Your lunch is in the microwave, you remember to use it right."

"Mhm." Clementine nodded.

"Okay, I'll be up in about an hour. If you're hungry I'll make you something else to eat" And with that Sandra left her alone in the hallway.

Clementine went into the kitten and opened the microwave to see a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sitting on a plate.

She took it out and made her way to the dining table. She sat down and started eating slowly, processing what was happening.

Was she simply sent back into the past?

Regardless, she needed to prepare for the possibility of the dead rising again.

If it did happen would she meet Lee again?

She smiled at the prospect of that. But what if he wasn't in the cop car this time around? What if she had to push on her own?

She shook her head, there was no need to have those thoughts clouding her judement. She told herself Lee would show up again.

But before then she had to prepare for the up coming disaster.

Would she try to save Sandra?

Probably not. She was nice but Clementine didn't care much for her. If she had other use for her maybe. But as of now no.

She finished eating and thought about her plan. Right now she need to get supplies.

Her mother was a doctor and she always had a first aid kit at the house. She would definitely need that so she would go and get that eventually. She didn't know where it was at so it would probably take some time to find. Although she was fairly certain that it was in her parents room some where.

Her father was an engineer and she where he kept his tools. She would go take a look to see if it there is anything she needs, besides a hammer. Her father also owned a gun ,but it was inside of a coded safe and she had no clue what the passcode was. So she might as well not even think about that now.

The most safest thing that she could do as of now is to get some of the canned in the cabinets. She went to her from and found her school backpack and her hat. She had picked it up from the floor and inspected it. It looked a whole lot nicer now then it was from before. She put it on to continue on with her business.

She went to the kitchen and started looking around for canned goods. She opened a couple cupboards and saw lots of food. She stuffed her backpack with about 15 of them. She went into the backyard and emptied he bag's contents into the tree house. Clementine repeated this process 2 times before She decided to stop because she didn't know when Sandra would wake up.

She wasn't going to risk getting caught because Sandra decided to wake up 20 earlier from her nap. Of course there was the possiblity for her to get up later then she in tended to ,but Clementine's cautious mind decided against it.

Better safe than sorry.

With the remainder of her time she went into her parents room to look for the first aid kit. While she was looking, she found the small gun safe sitting on the floor in the closet. She payed it no mind because she had no idea what the passcode was and she didn't plan on wasting time.

After looking for about 8 minutes she found it under the sink in the bathroom. She was ready to leave the room and put the first aid underneath her bed.

But as she approached the bedroom door heard a voice.

"Clementine?" Sandra's muffled voice called for her. Judging by how it sounded, she was calling from the living. She must have expected her to be there after she woke up.

She called again but this time it was much closer. Clementine kicked the first aid kit under the bed before hoping into the bed herself. She turned her face the opposite direction of the door and held a pillow against her cheek.

A few seconds later the door opened with a soft creak.

Sandra looked at the little girl's small frame in her parents bed.

"Clementine?"

Clementine didn't respond but she pulled one of the pillows closer to herself.

Sandra walk over to her and sat down next to the girl.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly, putting her hand on her shoulder.

Clementine stayed silent for a few second before she muttered. "I miss them..." She griping the pillow a little tighter.

"It's okay they'll be back soon."

"When?"

It was Sandra turn to be quiet because Clementine's parents, Diana and Ed, were supposed to be here 3 days ago.

"Next week." She didn't actually know but she didn't want the sweet little girl to start crying.

Clementine seemed to relax to that.

"Do you wanna watch T.V? Your favorite show is on."

"In a little bit." Sandra noticed the sadness in the girl's voice so she decided not press on.

"Okay, I'll set everything up for you. Come when you are ready." Sadra said as she got up from the bed and left Clementine alone in the room.

Clementine waited until she heard the door close before she rose from her laying position.

'That was surprisingly easy.' She guessed it was a benefit of being a kid. Having an adorable face and a cute, innocent voice to match was a great combonation.

She waited about five minutes before the opened the room door and took a peek down the hallway. She heard the kitchen sink running and assumed that Sandra was washing the dishes.

Clementine moving swiftly grabbed the first aid kit from underneath the bed and went to her room. Once she was inside she put the first aid kit underneath her bed.

Today was a good start for her.

**-Chapter 1 end-**


	3. Chapter 2

**An: I won't be posting the full reviews because it messes up the word count and because the app stops texts after 2500 words a chapter.**

**Review response-**

lizzionia: **Thank you, glad you enjoyed.**

SuspiciousTurtle:** Thanks for telling me. I didn't even noticed lol.**

SonicAnother: **I wouldn't call her that.**

I.C.2014: **Thank you, I hope you stick around.**

Donald Trump:** You'll like this chapter.**

Worker72: **I understand. We'll see whats will become of Sandra soon.**

CRed1988: **Preparing for the dead to arrive. I'll try to keep updating fast.**

-Line break-

It was about 3 am in the morning. Sandra put Clementine to sleep hours ago and made sure she the little girl went to at the right time.

At least thats what she thought she did. Clementine was wide awake planning what she was going to do next. She already had the food that she was going need for her travels. She would like to have more but her current amount will suffice. Also hadthe first aid kit so she could fix up Lee's leg when he makes it to her.

Now all she needed to do was to see if her father had some useful tools and she finished early she would have a crack at that safe.

She opened her room door slowly so wouldn't make extra noise. She made her way to the garage and opened it. It was dark but not so much so that sight impossible.

Clementine turned on the lights and saw her father's tool box sitting on his workbench. Walking up to it she grab the handle and pulled it off the latch which wasn't on sercured slipped open and the tool box's contents spilled on the floor.

Clementine flinched at the sound and quickly put the tools back inside. Turning the light off she left the garage and when into her room. While she was their she pulled the first aid kit out from under her bed then made her way to the slide in door.

It didn't take her long to deposit her goods into the tree house but it took long then she would have liked. Because of her smaller body she couldn't carry both of them in one go. It also took her longer to bring the tool box because it was heavier than the first aid and she didn't want to accidenly make it spill again. She after both items were up there, she scrummaged through the toolbox and found a tough looking star-head screw driver inside it. It fit her hand nicely and it didn't have to much weight to it. She thought it would be useful go have just in case a walker got too close to her. She knew she couldn't fight one off like her older self but if she was given the chance she could probably stab a walker in its eye socket, or stab it straight up decaying nose into its brain.

Not long after that Chementine retreated back into the house. Since she finished all of the most important things she wanted to take a crack at the safe so see if she could get it open. She knew her father was caring and intelligent man so the safe combo would have to be something that he could easily remember. He wouldn't want to forget it when he needed to protect his family. The only thing that she could think of that could easily be remember was their birthdays. Even if she didn't get the gun she would still be okay ,but in the short turn game she wouldn't be able to do as much as she would like to.

She made it to the room and opened the sliding closet. There the safe was sitting just were it was last time.

She decided to use her birthday first.

Left 11.

Right 15.

Left 03.

_Tick. _

Clementine made an audible gasp.

'Un-fucking-believable.'

She pulled the little it open and saw a standard stock beretta M9A1. It was a reliable home defence weapon with moderate stopping power. The gun was already loaded and besides it was an extra cilp.

She held it in her and noticed that it had some weight to it ,and it was a little big for her hand but manageable.

Things were looking up for her however there was one problem.

Where would she conceal it?

There was absolutely no way in hell the other survivors would let an 8 year-old girl wave a gun around.

She would need to prove to them that she could actually use it. Before then, she would have to keep it hidden.

She couldn't have it on her unless she wore big baggy cloths with was an obvious no go. It slow her down and she couldn't that happen. It would have to be stowed away in her backpack.

For now.

She grabbed the extra clip before she closed the safe and left the room to go to bed.

-Line break-

After about 4 hours later, Clementine woke up and decided to play the news channel. She wanted to see if there was anything about the dead yet.

To her pleasure, there wasn't.

She heard a door opened and knew that it was Sandra coming out of the guest bedroom. When she came into the living room and saw Clementine watching T.V she was surprised.

"Clementine? Why are you up this early?" Sandra said confused.

"I wasn't really that tired." She said watching the T.V.

"So why are watching the news? I thought kids your age would rather watch cartoons."

"Don't smart kids watch the news?" Clementine said childishly.

Sandra said with a laugh "Yeah, I guess they do."

Before she could say anything else the home phone started rigging. Sandra being in close proximity was able to pick it up after the third ring.

"Hello?" Sandra spoke into it.

"Yeah, are you guys alright?" She stopped talking a few seconds and listened to the person on the other side of the line.

"Okay, I'll tell Clementine. Goodbye and be safe." With that she hung up the phone.

"That was your parents Clementine. They said they'll be back before spring break." She purposely withheld the part of information about her dad being in the hospital.

"Why are they taking so long?" Clementine asked innocently.

"They were uh, having too much fun and lost track of time."

To change the subject Sandra asked Clementine. "Okay, I'll start making breakfest, anything you want particular?"

"I like peanut butter."

Truth be told, yesterday was the first time in years that she had something like that. Since production stopped after the outbreak, goods like those went bad after a year or sooner.

"So you want a sandwich?"

"Yes."

"You know that isn't breakfest food. I could whip up something much better than that for you."

"But I want peanut butter." She sounded kinda sassy.

Sandra found it cute.

"Alright, if you say so kiddo." Sandra started to walk into the kitchen but pause when she heard Clementine.

"Do we have cookies?"

"Not for breakfest."

"Please~ I only want one."

Sandra sighed. "Fine, just this once Clementine."

"Yay!"

With that Sandra disappered into the kitchen.

Clementine turned her attention back at the T.V.

The headline read as follows: "No one allowed in or out of Savanna."

'So it begins.' Clementine thought bitterly.

It didn't matter though, this time she was ready.

A few hours later Clementine and Sandra were both watching a movie because she wanted to take Clementine's mind off about what was happening and Savanna. She was surprised that Clementine wasn't sending a barrage of questions her way. Instead, if she guessed properly, a subtle look of acceptance on her face.

During that time there was a lot of activity outside. The neighbors were leaving for some reason. Clementine knew but there was nothing she could do. Sandra was going to die soon.

Should she let her die like last time?

Sandra definitely isn't a threat to her or to the group but she doesn't bring anything to the table either.

She was a very kind person.

If she wasn't bitten by that walker from before would she have taken up the mantle of Clementine's protector?

The answer was without a doubt yes.

It would be cruel to let it happen again. Clementine remembered when the walkers attacked them in the when they were returning from the park. She took her there to cheer up her but it quickly soured. Sandra's first reaction was to throw herself infront of Clementine protecting her retreat. Sandra feared for her own life, but prioritized her safety.

She payed the price for it too.

Sandra wasn't at all physically strong. The walkers were able to get the best of her.

When they were getting back to the house, Sandra shielded her from the threats. She still remembered the bite that ulimately led to her demise.

A walker was able to grab her and Sandra put her arm in the path of the walker's bite to protect the little girl. Sandra had to wrestle it off her arm and during that scuffle another walker blindsided her and took a chunk out of the space between her neck and shoulder from behind.

They had made it back and Sandra told Clementine to hide somewhere safe. Clementine thought the tree house would be good because she would be high up, away from the creatures if they came looking.

Sandra stayed in the house, telling Clementine that she would defend the house if anything bad happened. In reality, she succumbed to her injuries within the hour.

Sandra put on a brave face for Clementine dispite knowing she was going to die.

For Clementine to let her die just didn't seem right.

Because of this, Clementine finally decided to speak up.

"Sandra..."

"Yeah Clementine?" Sandra looked at the 8 year old.

"I think we are going to be in big trouble."

"Clementine, if this is about the cookie-"

_SKKRRRRR!_

The sound of a car crashing outside stopped her mid sentence.

**-Chapter 2 end-**

**An: Do you think Clementine will be able to save Sandra? Since we know so little about Sandra and what happened, I decided to her to fill in the blanks on how she got bit.**


	4. Chapter 3

**An: Hello everyone. Its nice to see that many of you are enjoying the story. I also want to say that I can update daily however its spring break and I plan to enjoy it. So don't worry about me not updating. I will at the very least once a week. If I take longer it might be because of school because graduation it's just around the corner for me.** **I also need help deciding on how Sandra looks I know she has brown hair and a fair skin tone but I need help with the facial features. I will use the best one I see in the reviews or in my PM.**

-**Review response-**

Vinnie:**I intend for Sandra to answer at least one more.**

Guest:**Thanks! glad you enjoyed.**

Guest:**Glad you enjoyed. At first I was going to kill Sandra off immediately but I've decided against it. It looks like it was a good idea because many of you want her to live too.**

Egon Pax: **I always thought that they would have been a good match. Lee was always able to calm her and they balanced out each other.**

Donald Trump: **Yes but this takes place after that event.**

Guest: **Hehe**

Worker72: **I am aware of that incident however that will happen later. I think you are right about Lilly and Larry.**

SuspiciousTurtle: **I do intend to shake thing up quite a bit.**

thedarkpokemaster: **You're right. The stranger won't even be in this story because Clementine won't update him on the group's whereabouts.**

Omuyev: **You're right.**

shipxgm: **Thank you, I hope you stick around**

CRed1988: **The chances are quite high.**

-Line break-

_Skrrrr! Crash!_

"What the hell?" Sandra got up to investate the sound.

She looked out of the front window and saw that someone had crashed into a tree across the street. The car must have swerved awkwardly in a hasty attempt to stop and crashed into the tree sideways. The driver's window was shattered and the driver's head was slumped through it. Three guys were already out checking to see what happened.

_"Someone call an amblance!"_ Said a guy who was closest to the car.

_"I don't think he's breathing! We have to get him out of there!"_ The man walked up and tried to to pull open the door.

_"The door is stuck!"_

_"Just yank him out of the window!"_

They started pulling the driver out and when he was about half way, Sandra knew something was terribly wrong.

His abdominal region... there was so much blood.

Was he attacked by some kind of animal? That was very unlikely considering that the that car came from inside the city. Before she could dwell on those thoughts the driver's eyes shot open. Something wasn't right. His eyes were glazed over and was a milky white in color, like a blind man's eyes.

The next thing that happened shocked her. Without a warning the driver's hands shot out and grabbed the man's face. Then without a moment of hesitation, he opened his mouth and sunk his teeth into the man's wind pipe. Sandra put her hands over her mouth when she saw the driver rip it out with his teeth.

The man fell backwards on to the road, holding his hands on his throat which didn't do anything because blood spurted from the spaces in between his fingers.

_"Jesus christ!" _one of them said while backing up.

_"John!" _The other rushed to his friend and pulled him away from the fresh eating driver.

The driver now being halfway free, pulled himself out of the window and fell face first on to the road. That didn't faze him because he rose to his feet, barring his bloody teeth at the two.

_"Stay back or I'll kick your ass you crazy motherfucker!"_ Said the one closest to the downed man known as John.

The agressor wasn't effected by the threat and stepped forward growling unintelligibly.

"Holy shit! Clem get me the phone, there is a killer outside!"

"Okay." Sandra heard Clementine run off to get it.

But Sandra did not once turn her head from the scene playing out infront of her.

John who had bled out ceased his movements and his body now laid still on the road.

By this time the brave one stepped forward punching the driver in the face with a heavy right hook. Sandra was sure if anyone else was in the drivers place they would be knocked flat on their ass.

However to the drivers credit, the only thing that the punch served to do was make his head recoil back and pause for a moment. He growled then stepped forward uneffected by the strike.

The brave guy responded with two more powerful blows, but both were as effective as the first one.

By this time John's body began to stir. Sandra heard him make a noise but she couldn't tell if it was a moan or a growl. Because of his injury all she heard was a nasty gurgle.

He rose up slowly much like the driver did and moved toward the person closest toto him which was they guy fighting the crazy driver.

Sandra heard a pitter patter from behind and she turned to see Clementine holding the homephone. Sandra took it and quickly dialed 911. She waited for a few moments before she was put on hold.

Then there was a cry outside. Sandra saw the named John taking a chunk of his friend.

_"Arghh! Avery, get him off of me!"_

Avery started shaking before he turned away.

_"I'm-I'm so sorry!" _He shook his head running off.

_"Avery help-GRAHH!" _The driver lunged at him knocking the three of them to the floor.

Sandra covered eyes and backed away from the window so she could avoid watching him die. But that didn't stop the chills from going up her spine when she heard him screaming.

"Oh God. Oh my God." Sandra said holding her chest with a paniced look on her face.

"Clem, we need to leave. Those crazy people might come us next!" She said grabbing Clementine's hand.

"We shouldn't go outside." Clementine pulled against her.

"What do you mean?"

"What if there are more monsters? I think we should check the local news."

Sandra began to collect her thoughts.

"You're right Clem...you're right." Her breathing began to slow and she thought rationally about the situation.

She started to walk back to the living room before Clementine said"Shouldn't we try to block the door, just in case they try to get in?"

"Yeah but what should we use?" Sandra looked around.

"I think we should use the table."

They walked over to it and stood on the same side of it before both started pushing it to the door. After that was finished she sat down on the couch and changed the channel back to the news and what she saw frightened her.

The president has already declared the country into a state of emergency and they were telling people to say indoors and away from people that are suspected to be infected.

This was happening everywhere?

Sandra's heart started beating rapidly.

_'Is my family okay?' _She would have to call to make sure.

If they weren't what could she do? It was too dangerous outside and if she brought Clementine she would be reasonsible for everything that happened to her. She couldn't leave Clementine on her own either.

She would have to sit tight until-

_Bam_

Sandra jumped at the sound and shifted her gaze to the door.

_'Don't tell me...'_

_Bam_

Her fears were confirmed she saw the door buckle to the sound.

"Leave us al-" Sandra couldn't finish her sentence because a small hand covered her mouth.

"Shhh" Clementine put a finger over her own lips.

"I don't think it knows we are here, so if we say quiet it might go away." Clementine whispered.

"Okay." Sandra whispered back.

For a few minutes Sandra and Clementine sat in complete silence until they heard agonized screams. Sandra could only guess what was happening to whoever that was.

Then the banging stopped suddenly. Sandra sigh in relief as she looked at Clementine.

"How did you know that would work?" Sandra asked the little girl.

"It was only logical." Clementine said simply.

Sandra looked into Clementine's eyes and didn't see the childlike innocence that they held once before.

"Were you always like this Clementine?"

The girl stared at her for a few seconds before she replied."What do you mean?"

"Have you always been this...mature?" she asked wearily.

"Yes."

"Why haven't you shown it before now?"

Clementine tilted her head.

"I'm only eight, why would I have to act like this all the time?"

Sandra shook her head. "Yeah, yeah...I guess you're right."

Sandra already knew that Clementine was smart for her age and that she was a fast learner. The little girl never had trouble with her work at school even if she hated homework. But her displaying this level of intelligence was not natural.

To know that the girl was only acting her age was honestly kind of scary.

"So are you some kind of genius?" Sandra question

"You could say that."

"Do your parents know?"

"No."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

Clementine looked down at her lap.

"Because I only wanted to be normal."

That wasn't entirely a lie. Ever since the walkers showed up she wished she could just go back to time were she wasn't always fighting for her life. To times that she wasn't worrying when she would find food for herself and for AJ. A life where she grew up like a normal kid.

Sandra stopped asking questions because it looked like she hit a sore spot. She leaned over to the little girl and pulled her into a soft embrace.

"Its okay to not be normal, that only means you are special and there is nothing wrong with that." She spoke in a comforting voice.

Clementine didn't say anything but she did return the hug which Sandra thought was a good thing.

Sandra released the hold and asked the girl."What should we do now."

"We should make sure this place secured."

Sandra nodded.

-Line break-

Several hours later night fall came. They had already made secured the house as much as they could. They covered locked all entries and put whatever they could infront of the doors to make sure nothing could get in. All of the windows were shut and the blinds were closed so nothing could see them inside. Clementine also made sure to tell Sandra to avoid turning on lights because the creatures could be attracted by them.

They were both awake because Sandra wasn't comfortable going to sleep in a situtation like this and because Clementine wanted to see if there was anything else she could do.

Clementine knew tomorrow her house would be ransacked by looters so she wanted to retrieve her gun just incase any of them still wanted to loot knowing that people were still inside. Clementine doubted it because it was early in the apocalypse and people weren't that desperate yet.

But it was better to be safe then sorry.

**-Chapter 3 end-**

**An: Remember to leave a review, I love reading them. And don't be afraid to PM me I always reply.**


	5. Chapter 4

**AN: Hey guys I'm back. Sorry for the wait, my prom and graduation are coming up so I was busy. I'm also going to have to prepare ****for finals to but you can expect frequent updates during the summer. This chapter isn't going to have a viewer response** **I want to answer everything at once and clarify a few things. First thing, the tweak won't do anything to the walkers directly. The walkers from twdg that we all know and love(?) will stay the same. Second thing I know how the virus works so I don't need 10 people PM-ing me about it lol. Third thing, don't worry about some resident evil crap happening. What happens in RE stays in RE. Fourth thing,** **I am** **a fan of the "New game plus" and "Ripples in a pond" idea so expect events to happen differently. I wanna keep Clementine on her toes.**

**I know all of you wanna know what the tweak is since it doesn't effect the walkers directly but unfortunately I can't because I ran out of room on this chapter**. **For now, I'll give you a hint. It has something to do with the effects of a walker bite on a person. I might make another AN chapter explaining.**

-Line break-

Clementine and Sandra sat in compete silence as the hours went by. Clementine watched Sandra occasionally steal glances at the door, like she was expecting something to come banging on it again.

Clementine wasn't worried at all.

She knew that they wouldn't have any trouble tonight because of all the racket outside. The people scrambling about, guns being shot wildly, and the sound of a car crashing for the third time tonight.

She would have called them stupid but they didn't know anything about what was going on. They were dealt a bad hand in this and it was unlikely that they would survive. It wasn't like she could do anything to help. The odd thing was is that she didn't feel anything at all. She knew that what was happening was sad but it didn't faze her. She supposed that it wasn't so odd because at first she wasn't against letting Sandra die.

Clementine looked at the glass sliding door and thought about how she was going to retrieve the gun. She could go out when Sandra fell asleep. She knew that the walkers couldn't get into the backyard be cause of the fence and it was unlikely that she would be spotted because of the dark and her small size.

She looked at Sandra again and saw the fatigue creeping on to her features and knew she wouldn't have to wait much longer. Clementine remembered what they might have to deal with tomorrow and decided against letting Sandra knockout. It wouldn't be beneficial to have her exhausted during then.

"Sandra." Clementine called out.

Sandra's eyes shifted to the girl.

"I think you should lie down." Clementine said.

Sandra shook her head and said,"I can't do that, what if one of those...monsters got in?"

"They won't." Clementine said firmly.

"Why do you think that Clem?"

Clementine pretended to think for a moment before she spoke again.

"I believe that whatever these things are, they are mostly attracted to sound. With all that noise outside, there is no way that they would come for us."

"I hope you're right..." She leaned back on the couch and said,"Okay I'll rest Clementine but if you feel like something's wrong, tell me."

Clementine nodded.

With that Sandra's mind slowly drifted into a state of unconsciousness.

Clementine sat quietly for a few minutes, making sure Sandra was asleep before she got off the couch.

She slowly crept towards the sliding door making sure not to make any noise to wake Sandra. She slowly pulled it open and felt a rush of cold air race over her skin.

She lightly shivered and noted that before they would leave this place she would definitely bring some kind of sweater to keep herself warm.

She stepped outside and closed the sliding door behind her. She heard the low moaning of the dead around her and knew that everyone in the neighborhood probably turned.

She went up to her tree house and climbed up the rope ladder. Once she was in the treehouse she found her goods just where she had left them. She put in the backpack and started to climbed down.

Then she saw _it._

From her current position she could see over the fence and the sight didn't please her. Illuminated by the light of the moon above, dozens of walkers were shambling around. They were all directed west, towards the city which still hasn't quieted down yet. Seeing this many of them behind the fence, Clementine could only guess how many were in the rest of the neighborhood. They were all going in the direction of the noise so most of them should clear out by tomorrow.

She looked away from the sight and got down from the tree house. She walked back to the sliding door went inside. Sandra was still asleep and with nothing else to do, Clementine decided to retire for the night. She went into her bedroom and drifted into a dreamless rest.

-Line break-

Four hours pasted and Clementine was again awake. She got up and looked in her drawer for something that she could wear when it got colder. After looking for a few moments, she found a dark blue sweater jacket with purple stripes running through it. She would have prefered it to be natural colored but it would do.

She left her room and went into the living room. Sandra was still sleeping so she went into the went into the kitchen. She wanted to see if the walkers cleaned out like she thought they would have. She was too short to see out of the window over the sink, she had to pull herself on to the counter to look out of the window.

To her delight she was correct. No walkers were in sight. All she saw was the familiar sight of busted down cars and beat up houses.

Then the phone started ringing.

Sandra woke up after the third ring and rose to get it. She was suprised when she saw Clementine picking it up before she got there.

"Mom?"

"Clementine?! Thank god you're okay! I was so worried." her mother's voice.

Clementine felt a lump in the back of her throat. It has been about 8 years since she heard her mother's voice. She had gotten over her parents death long ago but hearing her mother's voice once more sturred something inside of her.

"Mommy..." Clementine wavered.

Suddenly Clementine's mind was filled with visions of simplier times with mother and father...

Clementine shook those visions from her head. She didn't need those clouding her mind.

Her mother heard her tone and thought the worst.

"Are you okay baby?! If those crazy people are after you need to call-"

"I'm okay mom!" she said quickly.

Clementine heard her mother breathe out a sigh in relief.

"Thank God...I don't know what I would do if they got to you."

"I really miss you mom." Clementine said downtrodden tone.

"Its okay Clementine, will find a way to get you you." Her mother tried to cheer her up.

"You can't do that mom. They're monsters everywhere." Clementine tried to reason.

"I can't leave you alone out there...damn it!"

Her mother paused for a moment.

"...I knew we should have brought you with us. I'm so sorry baby." She sounded like she was going to cry.

"Mom its okay, just find somewhere safe. Me and Sandra will come to you guys."

She heard a sniff then her mom replied,"I know you will my brave little girl."

Clementine knew that her mother thought she was just spouting out some childish dream and she didn't blame her, she was only 8 years old after all. Even so, she felt bad that she couldn't do anything else from here.

"Mom you should stay away from from large groups of people." Even though she couldn't help her, Clementine tried to at least give her some advice.

"Why Clementine?"

"They turn into monsters if they get bitten."

Her mother's heart skipped a beat.

"W-what...? She said in disbelief.

"That means...Oh God-" before she could finish her sentence, shouting and screaming was heard in the background.

"Mom whats happening?!"

"I-I don't know but I think I need to go."

"Wait, mom I have to tell-"

She interrupted by a series of gunshots and shouts that increased in volume.

"I love you baby!"

_B__eep_

The line went dead.

Clementine stood in silence for a few moments before she lowered the phone to her chest.

"I love you to mom." she said in a low voice.

Clementine felt something press on her shoulder and look to see that Sandra resting her hand on it in a comforting manner.

"That call sounded kind of rough..." said Sandra.

Clementine shifted her shoulder away from Sandra's touch.

"I'm fine." She said calmly.

She walked away and looked at Sandra, "Let's just find something to reinforce that door." She said with an unreadable look on her face.

Sandra feared for the girl's mental health but decided not to press the issue. That girl's parents were probably dead and judging by her reaction, bringing them up probably isn't the best course of action.

Sandra would stay quiet for now.

"Okay so what do we use?"

Clementine pointed at the bookshelf.

"That."

"Wouldn't that make too much noise?"

"A majority of monsters cleared out so there shouldn't any within ear shot of here. If you wanna make sure you could look out there." Clementine said pointing at the window.

Sandra took a look herself saw that Clementine was right, none of the monsters were in sight.

Then she heard scraping and looked to see Clementine pulling the table away from the door.

To make the job faster, Sandra went over to her and help her pull it away from the door. Once it was a sufficient distance away from the door, Clementine stopped pulling and went to the shelf and wait for Sandra.

Standing on opposite sides of it Sandra looked Clementine in the eye.

"Ready?" She questioned.

Clementine merely nodded.

About a few minutes, the shelf was moved and the table was in place.

Clementine sat down with stared forward with vacant look in her eyes.

Sandra walked over to her and said, "So should do we do now?"

"Nothing."

"What? Why?" Sandra said in surprise.

"We have food and running water for now, so there's nothing we need to do as of now."

Sandra thought about it then replied,"Yeah I guess you're right."

Clementine looked up and said nothing more.

-**Chapter end-**

**AN: Clementine has a bit of emotional turmoil going on in her head. Will it cloud her judgement or will she push through it. Diana's reaction to the information about the bite was because Ed was bitten along with other people staying at the Marsh House. It can be assumed that they tried to hold out there because we find them as walkers just outside of the place as Lee in season 1.**


	6. Here it is

**AN: I said I was gonna do this so here it is, the tweak.****In season one the virus had nothing to do with the bite because it was already in everything and in everyone. The virus its self is too weak to hijack the brain of a living person because of their immune system hence why only the dead are raised. Once you were bitten by a walker you die by the horrible bacteria that is in the mouth the rotting walker not the virus. The change that I wanted to make was adding another strain of the virus to exist.**

**Lets call the current virus strain A, which everyone is already infected by. Strain B is only produced in the saliva of a walker. It is a more agressive form of the virus that can effect the brain before the host is killed. It only can do this once the immune system is already weakened by the all of the nasty bacteria from the walker's bite. So once the body is to busy trying to fight the infection and the high fever, it will attack the brain. The symptoms that it will give are similar to that of brain fever and rabies. The subject will experience: personality changes, difficulty to think clearly, involuntary movement, confusion, increased salvation, agression, and arrhythmia.****Once these set in the subject will eventually lose the ability to form normal thoughts and revert to a unintelligent, animal like tendencies. Once they enter this state they called "Virals".**

**Since virals aren't dead they can move quickly and are very agressive. Because their vocal cords are not decayed, they are quite loud when prevoked which will attract walkers and other virals if they are nearby. Virals exist only to kill, rather it be by it beating you to death via punching and kicking or even their teeth. And once the target is killed, they turn into a walker. Virals don't last very long and will die on their own via cardiac arrest induced by the arrhythmia or hemorrhaging in the brain or other vital organs. Once dead the viral becomes a normal walker. This gives them basically two lives each when they go against the military on top of being faster, stronger, and have a tool to rally more of each other.****I believe this will give the infected a huge boost against the military because lets be honest, there is no way an enemy so disorganised can defeat the military even if they didn't know to shoot for the head. Would a soldier waste their entire magazine once they don't go down after the first few shots? In reality they would aim for the next vital area which is the head. So me giving the virus this buff makes it seem more believable why the military lost and why there are so many walkers.**

**This change won't effect the entirety of the series that much because they will be rare to come by because they don't last long, most people are dead already, and it can only happen if they weren't outright killed by the walker and we know walkers are very effective in killing.****All in all this is mostly a change in the threat level of someone who is bitten by a walker. Now bite checks are gonna be a huge thing after this especially in communities of survivors even. Virals can see through the walker blood if you don't "act" like a walker. However they will be fooled by something like James' mask. I want to see Clementine's reaction when she runs into one of these. I am a fan of the ng idea so Clementine will be caught off gaurd by this and will have to react accordingly. These virals will be rare to come by especially when Lee comes into the picture.**


	7. Chapter 5

**AN: Hey sorry for the wait everyone. I last week I graduated and if I was being honest I to busy enjoying myself lol. This chapter won't have a review response because I simply don't have the space to do it. I suppose its my fault for taking so long to update.**

-Line break-

Clementine was sitting down with an unreadable look on her face. She already knows that her mother dies in Sahvanna but it didn't change the feeling in her chest. She thought that she had gotten over it ages ago but when she heard her mother voice, An emotion that she had difficulty discribing filled her. It had taken her a few mintues to realise what it was but now she knew.

It was unbrialed joy.

Such an innocent emotion that she haven't felt in a long time. But as quicky as it came it was torn away. It was a reminder of how cruel this world worked. If you weren't well adaptable and quick on your feet then you would die one one why or another.

She knew her mother would die in Savannah and she just shake those useless thoughts working her up. There was nothing she could to change what happened. She rested her head on the arm of the couch and closed her eyes.

From there, an unspecified amount of time went by before the sound of running water rung in her dulled senses.

Clementine opened her eyes and rose from her half sleep state to investigate the noise. She when into the kitten and saw Sandra filling a three gallon water jug.

"What are you doing?" Clementine asked.

"I thought about what you said earlier. You know, about the food and water? I realised with all of this going on, we won't have running water for long so I decided to save some. There isn't really much that I can store but its better than nothing." She explained.

"I also took a look at our food and it isn't looking good. We don't have much food in the fridge and on top of that we there's barely anything in the cabinets. I'm not sure if we can hold out for long with this stuff..." she said while turn off the water facet and closing the jug.

"I have more food for us. I'll go get it while you finish up." before Sandra could reply she left the room.

Sandra started filling up a second 3 gallon jug while she waited for Clementine to return. Initially she has thought that Clementine probably was talking about a stash of candy or snacks like other kids sometimes hid from their parents. But then she remembered Clementine wasn't exactly a "normal" kid. She hoped that Clementine had something that would help them last longer in the safety of the house because she definitely did not want to risk going outside to look for food. However she would do it if she ran of options.

When the jug was just about full Clementine made her presence known.

"Look what I have!" she said in a tone similar to a kid showing their parent a drawing they made.

She turned to see Clementine lugging her overly filled backpack on the counter.

She pulled open the zipper to reveal over a dozen cans.

Sandra's eyes widened considerably.

"Woah where did you keep all of that?"

"In my tree house. I still have more but I didn't have enough room in my bag to bring it all."

"I think we just might make it through this mess..."

Before Sandra could get ahead of herself a man's voice call from outside.

_"Hello!"_

Sandra froze and looked at Clementine who had her pointer finger over her own lips.

_"Can you guys spare me some food? A-anything would do fine please its for my family."_

There was a period of slience between them and during that time Clementine started to creep back into the livingroom. Sandra assumed she was just scared and trying to find somewhere to hide.

_"I know someone's inside. I heard the water running."_

Sandra grimaced.

"What do you want? We have weapons so don't try anything funny!" Sandra bluffed.

_"I-I just need some food."_

"...How many of you are out there?"

_"Its just me."_

Sandra sighed and decided to look. She slowly peaked her head to the window and saw a young man standing in the grass in the front yard. He was in dirted business attire and had some blood in it proving that he has through a couple of scuffles. He had a duffle bag and a bat laying besides him to prove that he wasn't a threat.

"Hi" Sandra said kind of awkardly

"Hello." He said back with a shakey smile.

"...Are you bleeding?"

"No, this blood isn't mine." He noticed that could come off really bad if he didn't explain further."I-I was attacked by one of those _sick _people."

Sandra's mind flashed back to the events that unfolded right infront of her eyes. Their milk white eyes and their bloodied maws.

Knowing what he was talking about, Sandra nodded grimly.

"So you were talking about food..." She began

"Yeah, me and my family were trying to make it to out of the city but we got attack. My wife got hurt and she's in not condition to travel so I decided that we were going to hold out until the military cleans up this mess. I am gathering all the food that I can find so we don't go starving." He explained.

"So I can you spare me anything? It would be a great deal of help."

Sandra said silent and thought this through. The man didn't seem to be lying and he plea seemed genuine. He was just some guy looking out for his family.

However it wasn't like Sandra could give away some of the already limited supply of food that they had. She clenched her fist tightly.

"Sorry, but I can't do that. Me and my...group are trying to wait it out until the military arrives too. If you want to get food you can check some of these houses, the people that left were in quite a rush so there is bound to be something left." She offered some advice. She knew it wasn't much but it was all that she could do for the guy.

"Those houses aren't exactly safe. Some of those freaks get stuck inside."

"You have a weapon." Sandra said bluntly.

"...Fuck." He muttered under his breath.

"Alright fine, I'll be on my way. Thanks for the _help._" He forced out the last word hefore picking up his belongings and moved on.

Sandra put a hand on her head and sighed regrettingly.

"Is the man gone?" She heard Clementine say from her.

She turned to face the girl and replied."Yes Clementine, he's gone."

"Was he a bad guy?" Clementine said in a worried tone.

"No I don't think he was. He was just a guy looking for help." She said honestly.

"Why didn't you help him?" Clementine said innocently.

Sandra looked to her side dejectedly.

"...I just couldn't Clementine. I just don't have anything to give. "She said somberly.

Clementine already knew what was going on but decided to play dumb. She knew Sandra already knew that she was quite intelligent but she wasn't going expose everything she knew.

Clementine only retreated to be closer to her firearm just incase things went south and they got attacked. But Clementine was right about it being too early for people to be that big of a threat. Right now everyone is just scared and confused of what was happening. Either rushing to safety or trying to wait it out. One thing that they both were counting on was for the government to deal with the problem. However when the government collapses the people will have to take it upon themselves to survive. Those who couldn't cope or adapt simply died.

"I don't think we can stay here for long." Clementine said warily.

"What? We have everything we need here now? Why should we leave"

"Its not safe for us. That man outside heard you using the sink. What if it was a monster instead? We can't fight them off because we don't have any weapons." That last point was a blatant lie but that was all Clementine need to sway her opinion.

Sandra gave in and said.

"You're right. But where would we go? Traveling out there would be too risky for the both of us."

"I don't know."

Sandra furrowed her eyebrows.

"So why are you saying this?"

"Because we need a plan. We don't have to know everything right away but I think we need to have a fall back."

Sandra couldn't argue with her logic. It was sound and she did make a good point.

'This girl really is a step ahead of the game.' Sandra thought seriously.

"So what should we do first?"

"I think we need to have an escape route if when the monsters come for us."

"That sounds like a good idea." Sandra agreed.

"The front yard shouldn't an option because of we would be exposed. We also know that some of the monster get stuck in the houses and if we get caught out there they might break out." Clementine explained.

She turned her head and pointed to the the backyard.

"Out there is our best bet. If you open the gate there is some kind of trail. I haven't really looked back there much but I know that there is lots of trees and bushes that we could hide behind while we get away."

"I think we should check it out." Sandra said seriously.

Clementine had to force back a smirk from etching on her features.

-Chapter End-

**AN: We just might find a familiar face soon...**


	8. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey guys, sorry for the wait. My phone bricked out and I unable write this for a while. The only reason I was able to compete this is because my brother let me use his phone.**

**-Review response-**

Deathstorke74728: **Here it is :).**

Sherblock: **I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately I can't do that because the app limits me to about 2500 words a chapter. I did this on a past story on Wattpad and I over did it. I described pretty everything and that made the story have to much filler. Although It was pretty good because I got 8k words a chapter.**

NoGoingBack6795: **Thanks for the compliments it encourages me to write even more.**

Worker72: **Unfortunately you might be disappointed this chapter. But it will for sure be in the next chater.**

CRead1988: **She did quite well.**

-Line break-

After Clementine explained what she wanted to do, they had started to get ready. Clementine continued to get all of the canned goods out of the tree house so they could get it ready so if it came down to it, they leave with little difficulty. Sandra wanted to help Clementine get some if it out of tree house but Clementine refused.

It was strange to Sandra because Clementine was never really protective of it before. Clementine had even asked her to climb it with her. She of course never did because she thought she would look goofy trying to get into a kid's treehouse.

Sandra didn't think much of it because Clementine moved quickly and got the stuff out fast. Sandra put most of the food into her luggage. However they ran into a problem. The water that they had couldn't come with them. It wouldn't fit anywhere and if they did bring them it would only get in the way.

It was unfortunate but on the brightside, Clementine mentioned that they could avoid using the water faucets for now and use the water that was gathered instead. That didn't didn't mean that they didn't have any water to bring. Clementine had a pink water bottle that was made of hard plastic. Her mother had bought her it because she played soccer at school. She wanted to makes sure her daughter didn't get dehydrated. Sandra found a spare one that was similar to her's except that it white instead of pink.

By the time they were finished it was already late in the afternoon. The two found themselves standing infront of the gate that lead to the trail.

Suddenly Sandra was a lot less enthusiastic about going out there. It just dawned on her that the fence and the gate were the only thing between them and those freaks. And they were just walking from the only place that the knew was safe right now.

Sandra gripped the hammer that Clementine gave her tightly and tried to calm her nerves.

Clementine quickly picked up on it and said"Are you okay?"

"I'm-" she initially was going to say that she was fine but couldn't bring quite bring herself to do it.

"I'm worried." She said honestly.

"Clementine are you sure we need to do this?...I saw what those things do to people. If we get caught, they'll rip us apart." She said with a fearful look on her face.

"If we don't do this we'll die. We need a back up if the monsters come for the house."

"Okay." Sandra replied.

A few more seconds passed as Sandra regained a bit on her confidence.

Sandra crouched down to looked Clementine in her eyes.

"I'll go out there myself Clem, I don't think a kid should be out there. If the monsters get me then you would still have everything you need in house."

"I'm not a kid." Clementine retorted sharply without thinking.

Sandra despite the situation that they were in, found that quite humorous.

"Yes Clementine you're just a kid. Albeit a smart one." She said with a small laugh.

"I know that you don't like this Clementine but I don't know what I'd do if they got you."

"They won't get me. Just let me come with you." Clementine begged.

Sandra stayed silent for a moment before giving in.

"Fine but under one condition. If things get bad you get back to the house no matter what happens to me. Understand?"

Clementine nodded.

"Okay..." Sandra stood up and faced the wooden gate.

"Clementine stay behind me." She said while opening it.

She stood looking at the surrounding and saw exactly what Clementine told her. There were many trees and unkept bushes about, along with some large rocks. Most importantly there was the trail that Clementine was talking about, a bike trail to be more specific.

"It looks clear. Stay close to me." She spoke quietly.

"I will." Clementine said from behind.

They followed the trial silently and Sandra found it creepy that everything seemed kind of...normal. It was quiet and the wind blew a soft breeze that lightly tickled her skin. Without everything going on this would have been a comforting afternoon stroll.

They continued on for a bit before the reached a small hill. Clementine instantly knew where they were once the reached this point. This was the very first time she saw Lee. It was very brief but Clementine remembered.

'Lee must of not gotten out the car yet.' Clementine thought because she didn't hear shotgun go off yet. '_Or he's not here.'_ A voice said in the back of her mind.

The next few seconds went by painstakingly as the too went up the hill. Just as they reached the peak of it Clementine heard Sandra mutter"Oh my God." under her breath. Clementine who was closely behind Sandra stepped out from behind Sandra's form and saw a the crashed cop car from all those years ago.

Clementine let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

Sandra processed the scene infront of her. This was exactly what she was expecting to see out here. She looked up and saw where the car must came from which was the freeway above, curtsy of the broken guard rail. Looking to the left she saw a police officer laying face down on the dirt with a trail of blood behind him.

"Officer? Are you okay?" Sandra called out.

He didn't even twitch to the sound of her voice. He was most likely dead. A little ways from him there was his shotgun laying out in the open.

'Was he attacked by the monsters?' Sandra really didn't like the sound of that.

Sandra turned to look at Clementine.

"Clementine think we should get going, it's not safe here." She said.

"No, not yet. Look." Clementine said pointing at the officer's shotgun.

"Don't you think that would be useful?"

Sandra looked at it again.

"Yeah it could be..." She waited a few moments before saying.

"Okay Clementine. The monsters could be nearby so stay close." She said stepping slowly down the hill.

Sandra really didn't like this. While there was a lot of things they could hide behind and possibly cover there retreat, she realised that those could just as easily be blind spots for them. Once they were down the hill Sandra walked over to the gun. She picked in up and fumbled it around a bit. It was heavier than she thought it would be.

While Sandra was messing around with the Shotgun, Clementine walked over to the cop car and looked into the window. There she saw the face of her savior and protector, Lee Everett. A number of emotions swelled in her chest but the most prominent one was hope. But upon closer inspection Clementine noticed something was different. He looked really beat up. She knew that he got hurt but not up to this degree. His worst injury was his leg wound. Worried for his well being Clementine got Sandra's attention.

"Sandra come look someone's still in here."

Sandra stopped what she was doing and came over with the shotgun still in her hand.

"We need to get him out of there."

"Clementine there could be a good reason why he's in there"

Clementine shook her head.

"I know him. He was a substitute teacher at my school at my school for a few months before he left. Mr.Lee is good, there is no way he could do anything that bad." Clementine lied through her teeth.

"And if you leave him out here he'll die. The monsters will find him and he'll be killed trapped in this car. His blood will be on your hands." Clementine pressed on Sandra's moral persona.

Before she could say anything else Sandra responded.

"Okay, okay. No need to grill me on it, I was thinking about what's best for you."

"So how are we gonna get him out?" Sandra asked.

"Maybe the cop has the keys on him." Clementine suggested.

"Okay I'll be back." Sandra walked back to where the cop was. As she got in closer the the officer's body as strong pungent smell reached her nose. It smelled awfully like roadkill if not worst.

'His body must of started decomposing.'

Not wanting to get any closer to the body she tried to see if she could spot the key from where she was standing. Maybe she was lucky because his keys were poking out from his back pocket. She bent down and picked up before turn turning back to the car. But as soon as she did that something caught her leg and she fell on the ground. From her downed position she looked back and saw the officer holding on to her ankle with those same cloudy milk white eyes from before.

Thinking fast she kicked at the officer hitting him right in his jaw. The kick served its purpose and the officer relinquished its grasp on her. She used this time to flip around on her back where she could better defend herself and grabbed the shotgun that she had dropped during the fall by this time it already recovered from the kick and was at her leg again. She pointed the gun at the monster's head and pulled the trigger.

_Click_

"Fuck!" instead on a blast that would have surely taken this thing's head off, the gun made a clicking sound. She had watched enough movies to know that it meant the gun was not loaded. The thing already crawled up and she attempted to bat it away with the gun but it was unsuccessful. The monster grabbed her shoulders and went for her neck. Luckily for Sandra she was able put the shotgun underneath it's chin, halting further advances. They didn't mean the monster stopped. It continued trying to bite at her tirestly and slowly it was winning. Sandra strength was giving in. Suddenly the creature's head jolted before its body went slack.

She pushed the thing off the and saw Clementine behind it holding a bloodied screw driver in her hands.

"Are you okay? Did it get you." Clementine said worriedly.

"I'm fine...just give me a second..." She said rising to her feet.

She look down at her hands and noticed that they were shaking. Her heart was also practically beating out of her chest because of that terrifying experience.

"Is it dead?" Sandra asked.

"I think so." Clementine said cautiously.

"Good."

Sandra looked back at the cop car.

"Now lets get this guy out here before any more of them come."

-Chapter End-

**AN: Clementine saves Sandra yet again and Lee is injuries could possibly be more serious than in cannon. Any questions? Write a review and I'll answer then in the next chapter. Or PM me if you want an immediate response. See ya' later!**


	9. Chapter 7

**AN: Jesus christ this came out hella late lol. I apologize but its difficult to write when you don't have your own device to do so with so please forgive. I was trying surprise you guys with a double update but it looks like its just not possible for me to do that as of now.**

-Review response-

Guest: **Here you go.**

thedarkpokemaster: **No need to apologize for being away but its glad to have you back. Thanks for the compliment.**

CRed1988: **Indeed**.

Worker72: **Yup we'll see how Clementine will deal with this situation. And don't worry this story will start to differ greatly from canon. I have a lot of ideas and there kind of uh..."ambitious"**.

-Line break-

"Open the door slowly, his body is against it so you need to be careful." Clementine told Sandra warily.

"Okay, I got it." Sandra replied to the girl whilst inserting the key into the car door. With the door unlocked she pulled on the handle slowly so the man wouldn't come tumbling out. Once the door opened she had to push against it somewhat to support the man's weight. Once it was opened far enough she put her leg against the door to support it and looked into saw this Lee.

The guy had blood running the side of head and by the look of it bled quite a bit because there was a sizable amount that was on his own shirt.

"Ah, Clementine! Can you lend me a hand." Sandra said looking back towards her.

"Yeah, want do you need?" She had her hands twitching nervously.

"Hold this for me. Don't worry it isn't loaded so it won't fire." She said holding out the unloaded waepon with her left hand.

Clementine nodded before grabbing it with her small hands. She frowned upon this when she noticed the size if the gun in comparison to her body. 'Looks like I won't be able to shoot anything like this for a couple of years...'

Sandra turned her attention back to the guy in the car and locked arms underneath his before pulling him out of the vehicle. Lee was quite a big guy Sandra noted. Definitely over 6 foot. Sandra groaned at how difficult it was going to be a dragging this man back to the house.

"Okay I got him. Let's get going." Sandra with her voice strained a bit.

"Euuh..."

Just before she was ready to pull him he let out a low groan that startled her.

Lee's eyes opened in an almost a half asleep, hazed state. His eyes slowly dirfted to the small girl who was staring at him with a worried look on her face.

"Clemen...tine?" He struggled to say her name. His right hand lifted as if he tried to reach out to her.

Clementine eyes wided and she froze on the spot.

He was trying to fight off the fatigue but it wasn't enough because his eyes lost clarity and he blacked out.

"That can't be good...we need to get back to the house." Clementine said recovering from her initial shock.

"Yeah, lets get moving Clem." Sandra agreed while pull Lee's unconscious form with some difficulty. After adjusting to his weight Sandra found it slightly easier to move him.

The hair on her neck was still standing on end after that in encounter with the dead(?) cop minutes ago. Her legs were still slightly twitching because of the terror and adrenaline that was pumping through her through her veins. Thinking back at the situation made her shutter involuntarily. Now that she was thinking about it clearly, lots of questions were floating around in her head.

What exactly happened back there?

How did Clementine know what to do?

Was that guy really dead?

And other similar questions.

She was quite certain that the cop was dead because of the all blood that was around him, the fact that we wasn't breathing, and the smell of his body decaying. With all of these things put together she knew, he had to be dead. Does that mean that this disease can bring back the dead? Thinking about it like the events that happened yesterday made sense. That driver from yesterday, those guys said he wasn't even breathing when they tried pull him out of vehicle. And the guy who had his throat ripped out, he bled out in moments but he came back as one of those monsters.

How did Clementine know how to dispatch it so easy? You can't really kill something that's already dead but Clementine did just that some how. She didn't see exactly the manner of attack Clementine used but knew where that bloody screw driver ended up.The attack had come swiftly and accurately. She would have questioned where and when Clementine got that screw driver but she knew the kind of forethought the girl had. The girl seemed to be some sort of prodigy in her own regard and Sandra knew it was quite likely that the girl's intelligence dwarfed her own. She also noted that Clementine didn't have much of a reaction after killing the monster. Sure she was concerned about her safety but she didn't react to the fact that she just killed something. Perhaps the girl already real determined that these things aren't really people anymore.

Speaking of Clementine she had her own questions. How did Lee know who she was? The first time they meet is back at her house. Did Lee keep his memories? If that was true then they together could prevent a lot of the terrible thing from happened to the group from accuring. The downside of this is that she wouldn't have as much behind the scene control of the group as she would like. While Lee would most definitely take up the leadership role right st the beginning and listen to her on some things, there would be many things that they wouldn't agree because of how she was now. Even though she didn't like thinking about it this, she essentially desired to control the group through Lee. If it was anyone else she wouldn't have given it a second thought about using them. She for the most part stopped seeing people for who they were and instead saw them for there resources. That was the reason she was able to take care of herself and AJ for so long. It wasn't personal, it was necessary for them to survive.

Before she could think anymore about the matter, the were already at the backward gate. After making back inside Clementine fixated her mind on a more urgent which was Lee's condition.

"Lay him on the couch, I'll be right back."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Sandra asked confused.

"Getting something to treat those wounds." Clementine said after placing the unloaded shotgun down. She opened the sliding and went outside to her tree house to retrieve the first aid. After about two minutes Clementine returned to the living room with the supplies in hand.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Tree house." Clementine replied dryly.

She crouched down and opened the first aid and looked at Lee's resting and inspected his injuries.

"Are you sure you can do this?"

"Yup, my mom was a doctor." Clementine said as if that answered the question.

"What's that supposed to-"

"Just let me focus." Clementine snapped.

She leaned in and looked at his head injury. Clementine noted that there was swelling present in the area and the wound that all the blood came from. It already stopped bleeding but the blood was matted to the area around it.

"Sandra, could you get me my water bottle and a small hand cloth, if you can find one." Clementine asked Sandra.

"Sure, I'll be back in a sec."

As Sandra walked off Clementine decided to go and check for something. She her hands on both sides of Lee's face and used her thumbs to pry open his eye lids.

"...shit." Clementine muttered undrr her breath. She really didn't like what she was seeing. One of Lee's pupils were dilated far more than the other.

'That's definitely a concussion...'

She let go of his face and waited for Sandra to return with what she asked for. After about a minute Sandra came back with both of the things she needed.

"Here you go Clem." she said handing the materials to her.

"Thanks."

"So how is he?" Sandra asked kneeling next to her.

" Not very good. I haven't checked everything yet but so far it looks like he has a concussion and his leg is pretty messed up." Clementine explained.

Sandra frowned.

"That's terrible."

Clementine opened the water bottle and poured some of water on to the cloth. Once she got enough on it she brought it up to the wound and started to wipe off the blood that was matted on and around it. After she finished she opened and used some alcohol swabs from the first aid to make sure it wouldn't get infected. Once she finished with she used a gauze roll to bandage his head.

She moved on to his leg wound and repeated this process which only took a few minutes.

Clementine then started unbuttoning his dress shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm checking for any other injuries. While his visible wounds are superficial there could be something much worst that I've yet to find." Clementine said slightly annoyed although she didn't show it.

Once she unbuttoned it a little over half way she ask Sandra for some help.

"Could you lift his T-shirt up a bit for me? That would be a great help."

"Alright."

Sandra pulled it up revealing some nasty bruises.

Clementine put her hand on it and pushed down a bit on and felt the tenderness of the effected area.

"I don't think his ribs are broken so that's good." Clementine said retracting her hand.

"Do you have any pain meditation Sandra?" She said turning to face her.

Sandra shook her head.

Clementine sighed.

"What's wrong?" Sandra asked with a concerned look on her face.

"He's going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes up."

-Chapter End-

An: This Clementine learned a few things from Mr. Lingard and some of the other doctors from her stay at the new frontier. This is why she see's people as resource too. She wanted to learn everything she could to ensure AJ and her survival.


	10. Chapter 8

**AN: What do you guys think about me using polls to decided where the story goes? While I am MOSTLY going to pull the story in the direction I want there are times where I have many ideas and I can write either outcome. During those windows maybe I could post a poll on my account to see how you guys vote.**

-Review response-

Supernova1219:** I'm glad that you're enjoying your read. She is mostly detached, yes but that is because she still has some morals thanks to Lee. Think of her like the Clementine we find at the start of season 3 except she didn't change. That's the reason she didn't side with Lily and protected the kids at the school. But if she had a working car, I think she would have left them. Lee is going to have to pull her away from that mind set because she will still take what Lee says to heart. She practically idolizes him. Especially when she pulls some crazy shit later on. Lee will eventually remember everything.**

thedarkpokemaster: **This Clementine viewed all of the kids at the school in a "neutral" light. This Clementine stayed the singletine route because she didn't want to feel the pain of losing someone close again. (Although she did find Louis' antics cute sometimes.)**

Worker72: **Clementine isn't in the clear just yet! **

MedicusAestus: **Yes, Lee is "back". This Lee died canonically by being shot by Clementine before he could become a walker.**

**AN: Before this chapter starts, I'd like to thank gaara king of the sand for being kind enough to beta my story.**

-Line break-

"He's going to be in a lot pain when he wakes up." Clementine said leaning herself back for she had finished looking at the injury.

Sandra in response let go of Lee's shirt once she saw Clementine pull away.

Clementine had her eyebrows scrunched up thinking hard about something. Sandra wanted to ask her something but decided against doing so because she didn't want to break the girl's focus. While Sandra knew that Clementine's mother was a doctor it didn't explain how she knew how to deal with this so easily. It was like she's done it before. Clementine told her herself that Diana and Ed didn't know about her intelligence so it wouldn't make sense that Diana taught her how to do this.

Clementine suddenly stood up and made her way towards the kitchen before Sandra could say anything. Clementine opened the freezer and look for something could be cold enough to help lessen Lee's swelling. She found a tray of cubes and then looked around in some more and found a plastic ziplock bag and with that she put the ice inside of it.

She came back into the livingroom with the bag and held it against Lee's head. She looked at him with a sad look on her face. She was glad she had him back but seeing him like this put a knot in her chest. If she hadn't convinced Sandra to go with her out there, Lee would have probably died before he got to them with those injuries. She knew that Lee could definitely could use the stuff back at the pharmacy but until then, it was up to her to protect him.

'Don't worry Lee. Its my turn to protect you now.' She vowed that in life Lee wouldn't die trying save a naive little girl. She wouldn't let him die because of her incompetence again.

Clementine sat there in silence for awhile with that same look of contempt on her face.

"So Clementine..." Sandra said getting the girl's attention.

"Yes?"

"Why did you have the all of that food and the first aid kit in your tree house?"

"My mom bought the first aid kit while ago but since we never had any use for it she let me play doctor. I had all of the food in there because I thought it could come in handy someday." This statement was only half a lie.

"...so you're a hoarder?"

Clementine shrugged.

"Maybe a little."

"Well I don't think its a bad thing. If you didn't have any of this we would have had to to start scavenging for food. And after today I'm not to eager to step out there." Sandra said with a thoughtful look.

"You got anything else up there?" Sandra asked out curiously.

"Just my Dad's tool box."

"That explains how you got a hold of the screw driver and the hammer."

"Oh before I forget, I found something out there." Clementine reached into her pocket and pulled out shotgun shell.

"While you were getting Lee out of the car, I found this laying on the ground."

"Wow nice job Clementine." Sandra surprised.

Clementine smiled slightly.

"I'll go get us something to eat. I'll call you when I got it ready."

"Okay."

Sandra stood up and went into the kitchen. With Sandra gone she turned her attention back to Lee.

-Line break-

_(7 hours later)_

It was night already and Clementine did all that she could do help but found herself growing tired as the hours tick by. It looked like staying up late had a negative effect on this younger body of hers. She supposed she would have to get used to the needs of this smaller and weaker form. Sandra noticed Clementine's fatigue and told the girl that she could watch over Lee while she slept. Clementine declined the offer at first but after some further persuasion and her body practically begging for her to rest. Even then Clementine told her to call her if anything happened. When Clementine left to rest Sandra hand nothing to but to sit quietly. She turned on the T.V and turned to the news only to find that there was no signal anymore. She turned off it and decided that she would try to contact her family once more.

The hours pasted as the phone rung over and over with no response coming from any of her immediate family or other relatives. With each call not answered the growing pit of dread in her stomach only grew. She knew what happened to them.

She broke into a sob after struggling to hold in her raw emotions

"They're gone, all of them." She said to herself weakly.

She knew everything going on was terrible but now the situation truly sunk in. This is what the end of the world looked like. She imagined her parents nice little home being over taken by countless monsters. Or if them trying to escape their car got stuck in the jam of cars because of everyone trying to flee from the chaos.

If it wasn't for Clementine, Sandra knew that she'd be dead. It's been only two days since the world has gone to hell and she already had to be saved twice. First she almost rushed herself and Clementine to horrifying deaths by trying to leave the house. If she had foolishly pulled Clementine and herself out they would have found themselves in the middle of the chaos that ravished the neighborhood. Then she got herself nearly killed by a monster because she let her guard down.

She was weak, so very weak.

And she hated it.

Unbeknown to Sandra, Lee was beginning to stur in his sleep. Only moving in slight twitches for brief moments at time like he was having bad dream. Then his face then formed into a grimace as heard distorted voices in his head followed by images that were too blurred to tell what was going on.

_"You're strong Clem, you can do anything."_

_"But...I'm little."_

_"__That don't mean nothin'. You're gonna see bad things but its okay."_

The voices sounded distant and came from all directions. But they also drew closer as time went on.

_"You have to shoot me honey."_

_"I'll miss you..."_

_"Me too."_

The next image was surprisingly clear compared to the rest. Which happened to have him stare straight down a barrel of a gun.

_BANG_

Lee jolted awake at the volume of the gunshot that was still resounding in his head. He found himself in a dark room only lit slightly by the moonlight that was present. What first noticed was the pain assaulted his senses. He felt dizzy and his head was pounding. Lee turn his attention to what appeared to be the silhouette a woman sitting across from him. She was leaning forward and had her and clutched tightly around a phone when he heard a quiet robotic voice.

"The person you're trying to call is unavailable at this time. Please leave a message after-_beep_" She end it before it could complete.

Then he heard her take a sharp intake of air and slowly let it out with a haggard breath, like she was trying to avoid making noise.

Noticing this, Lee tried to sit up and ask if she was okay. Unfortunately, he was stopped by a sharp pain in his side that made him grunt in pain. Sandra heard him and started whipping the tears from her eyes.

"Oh...you're awake." She said weakly.

After she whipped all of the tears away she spoke again.

"How do you feel?" Sandra asked concerned.

"Like crap." Lee said bluntly.

"You should go back to sleep. You have a concussion and I don't think straining yourself will help you get better."

Although the woman was right and he knew that his body definitely wanted it but there was too much that he need to know.

"Where am I?"

"A small town just outside of Atlanta. We found you stuck in a police car just outside of our backyard." Sandra explained.

"Oh..."

"You're lucky that Clementine knows you because if it were up to me, I would have left you inside."

Clementine...

That name was awfully familiar but he couldn't match a face with who it was

"Why didn't you call the police? Or maybe an ambulance?" Lee asked genuinely curious and confused. It wasn't like he would rather be headed to prison but the situation made no sense so he had to ask.

Sandra shook her head bitterly.

"The world has gone to hell since the time you were out."

"What do you mean?"

"To put it simply, the dead are walking the earth."

Lee eyed her strangely.

"That sounds ridiculous. "

"Yes it does." Sandra agreed.

"I wish it really was a bunch of nonsense but its true. We're trying to hold out until the military comes but I'm starting to have my doubts." Sandra said in a thoughtful tone.

"Doubts? Why?"

"If this is really happening everywhere, how will the army actually going to deal with something like this? Are we really this fucked?" Sandra rested her hand on her forehead.

"Besides that, I would like to ask you a question."

"Shoot."

Sandra straighted her posture and looked at Lee straight in his eyes.

"Tell me...what was the reason you were in that police car?"

-Chapter end-

**AN: I know the dialogue in Lee's strange 'dream' was almost mix-matched but that is on purpose. I wanted to show that Lee's memories didn't return perfectly like Clementine's** **did**.


	11. Chapter 9

**AN: Hey guys, this chapter was kind of tough to write because of Lee and Sandra's interaction**.

-Review response-

Eder Jair Ortegon Morales: **Thanks bud, I'm glad you like it.**

thedarkpokemaster:** Yes she has a long way to go.** **I didn't know people didn't like s3 Clementine but thats probably because I love them all equally.** **I like** **s3 Clementine particularly because she's the embodiment of someone who's dealt with too much shit and that even the kindest of people will change when they're constantly put into shitty situations. Proof of that is this story's cover, I love that look she has in her eyes. After watching groups fall apart time and time again she's decided to distant herself from them. The new frontier was the last straw for her. She does have heart. Blackened yes, but a heart none the less. Lee is going to have to pull her back around**

SixinTheDark: **Hi!**

Cutiepie: **Glad you like it.**

Worker72: **It will happen sooner, thats for sure.**

Arrow623: **Yeah I'm really sorry about the short chapters. I'm sorry to say this but thats all the app will allow me to do for a chapter with is unfortunate. When I get a computer(which I have to clue of when I'm getting one) they'll get longer. Glad you like my story though**.

Supernova1219: **That was the original plan but that cut into the chapters length far too much along with something else so I had to take them both out unfortunately. Don't fret though it will happen not far in the future. I also liked putting that feature in too. I'm glad you noticed. Clementine will have to get used to doing things in her smaller and younger body. And ooooh yeah she will definitely John Wick some motherfuckers in this story.**

CRed1988: **Thanks for your continued reading of my story buddy. You'll find out the answer in this chapter.**

-Line break-

"Tell me...what was the reason you were in that police car?"

Lee stayed silent, unsure how he should reply to such a question. He could lie protect his status as a convicted criminal.

After all, the young woman didn't know who he was and it he could probably hide that information.

If he told her the truth it was unlikely that she would let him out of these cuffs. She already admitted that she would have left him in that car if it wasn't for this "Clementine" who wasn't present. But if this person knows him like the young woman said, is it possible that they know whaf he did?

Lee mentally shook his head. There was no way that this person would let him out if that was the case.

"I was caught...shoplifting." he said off handedly. Lee studied the woman hoping that she didn't she through his lie. For the next few seconds he waited for her response.

After a few pop moments she eased back on her seat. "I guess I was just being paranoid...She did say you couldn't have done something too bad." She said light heartedly.

Shifted his hands a bit making the chains of the cuffs rattle drawing Sandra's attention to them.

"You mind taking these things off me? Its difficult to rest with these things cramping my wrist."

Sandra nodded

"Yeah gimmie a momment." Sandra said putting her hands in her pockets feeling for the keys. After she got a hold of them she got up from her seat and went over to Lee. He raise his arms to help her get a better look.

A few moments later Lee heard the cuff click before the easily slid off his wrists.

"Thanks, those things really start to hurt when you have 'em on for so long."

"No problem." She said while rising up to her full height and going back to her seat.

Lee with his hands now free he pushed himself up into a sitting position despite the pain that he put himself in.

"Hey I was serious when I said you should be resting."

"I'm fine." Lee said with a slightly strained voice.

"My name's Lee, what's yours." Lee asked politely.

"I'm Sandra."

"What happened to the officer that was driving me? He seemed like a nice guy." Said Lee.

Sandra's face darkened at that.

Lee noticed this and asked "What's wrong?"

"We...we found him but he was one of them. He was dead but while we were trying to get you out, he came back and nearly killed me. In the end we took care of him." Sandra explained slowly.

"Damn that's a shame he seemed like a good guy too." Lee said with a disappointed tone in his voice.

After a brief pause Lee asked "So when did all of this start?"

At first he wasn't really sure what to think about the situation that he was in but he decided to trust the woman. After all, there wasn't any reason not to believe her considering that he wasn't in the hospital nor being hauled to prison. For those reasons Lee decided that he could trust her.

"It all happened about 2 days ago. Everything started out normal at first, I just got done making myself and Clementine breakfast when a car crashed outside in the front yard. I took a look out the kitchen window and saw that there were already some guys around the car. The driver was in horrible conditionso they tried to get him out of the vehicle but that is when things got crazy. The driver sprung to life and sunk his teeth in the poor guy's throat. Then he came back as one of those monsters before attacking and killing his friend. I wanted to get the the fuck out of here when I saw that but Clementine stopped me. I'm glad she did because all hell broke loose not long after. Everyone was trying to make it to some sort of evacuation and they all got packed together and picked apart."

As Sandra retold the those past events, Lee sat quietly letting the information soak in.

"Why didn't any of the monsters try get in here?" Lee questioned while looking around the room. "From the looks of it this place is in good condition for something like that happening."

"Clementine figured out that the monsters are attracted to sound and with all the chaos out there, they didn't bother coming from us. So we waited for it to pass like a storm."

"So you got lucky?"

Sandra nodded slowly.

"Real lucky." Sandra said solemnly.

Sandra stretched out her body some what on the smaller sofa and said. "Anyway I'm going to sleep and I suggest you do the same."

Lee obeyed and layed back down on his back.

"Wake me if you need something." She said closing her eyes.

After a few mintues Sandra fell asleep and Lee found it difficult to do the same.

Not because he wasn't tired, he could definitely feel the fatigue trying to pull him into a state of rest but he had something gnawing at him in the back of his mind. At the mention of the name Clementine, Lee felt that he was forgetting something really important. Not to mention the feeling he felt when he heard it.

He felt...relieved.

Looking at the ceiling he thought to himself,'Just who are you Clementine?'

-Line break-

_(Several hours later)_

Clementine opened her eyes and found herself in her bedroom once again. Although it was nice to be back in a nice comfortable bed wasn't quite used to it. She looked at the closed curtain and from the light shining through it, it would appear that she had slept longer than she would have liked. She sat up and got out of her bed while shaking off the morning grogginess. Exiting her room, she made her way to the livingroom. And saw Lee leaning back on the couch holding his head like he was trying to ease a migraine. and Sandra was strangely nowhere to be seen which Clementine found strange.

"Lee!" She said getting his attention.

Lee slowly turned to see a little girl with a giddy look on her face heading towards him.

Before he could react, he found himself in her embrace. Lee didn't know what he did to deserve this kind of affection but he found himself returning it in a fatherly manner. He didn't consider himself good with kids at all. He thought of himself as quite the newbie actually but for some reason the action came naturally.

It felt right.

When the girl pulled away looked at him happy eyes.

"You're Clementine?" Lee said with surprise evident his voice.

"Sandra told me about you, but I didn't expect you to be so young."

As soon as those words left his mouth a saddened look crossed the girl's features briefly.

'So he doesn't remember.'

"What's wrong?" he asked with concern evident in his voice.

Clementine stayed silent for a moment before saying, "You doubt my ability?"

Lee thinking he offended her, he tried to fix what he said.

"Of course not. Its just that kids normally don't know how to do these kind of things so it surprised me. Thanks for patching me up." He said earnestly.

The girl smiled smugly at that.

Clementine heard footsteps behind her and turned around to see Sandra holding a cup of water.

"Goodmorning Clem." She said walking past her to hand Lee the water.

"Morning." She replied automatically.

"You want anying to eat?"

Clementine looked Sandra straight in the eyes.

"Peanut butter." she said without missing a beat.

Sandra had to suppressed a giggle.

Despite what's going on Sandra didn't know what was up with Clementine and her sudden love for peanut butter but she would oblige to her request.

About five minutes later Clementine found herself sitting on a stool that was facing the counter so she could eat. Enjoying the flavors of that sandwich Clementine thought about how a simple disk like this won't be available in the near future so she enjoyed every taste of it. She took a side ways glance at the jar and decided that if she had more room in her bag, she would bring it with her.

Clementine took a look to her left watched Lee and Sandra holding a conversation with one another. Dispite the situation they were in right now, watching them like this made it look almost normal. Clementine sported a small smile at the scene playing infront of her.

_Thud_

Unfortunately the scene before her got ruined because something walked roughly into the glass sliding door while she wasn't paying attention. Clementine eyes quickly locked on to the figure of a man with his body pressed against the glass.

She knew that it was no walker because the fence in the back yard prevent them from getting in.

So what the _fuck_ was that?

Upon seeing his appearance, Clementine knew something was very wrong. His skin was sickly pale and his eyes were sunken in and his sclera were yellow. There was also some blood on his shirt suggest that he participated some sort of unsavory activity before hand. On top of that he seemed very jittery.

About 3 second passed at this time and Sandra and Lee were already on there feet. The man's eyes fixated on two of them and his face twisted into a feral snarl before he let out a bloodthirsty cry that made Sandra step back in fear. He raised one of his hands and hit the window with a hammer fist strike, sending spider web cracks through the glass.

-Chapter end-

**AN: Another cliffhanger eh? Sorry 'bout that. I wouldn't have to do this if I had a computer. And yes this will be our first encounter with a viral. Canonically this is about the time where the TV burglar that Clementine told Lee about in the bus comes along. The only thing thats different is that he was bitten beforehand _hehe_. If you're wondering how it found them without them making noise is because these things constantly looking for something to kill. They don't wander aimlessly like walkers. Lee and Sandra's interaction with each other. At first I was going to have him tell the truth about what happened but then I remembered how Lee tried to keep his identity a secret from the others until Carley them old him to come clean to them. I also felt like he wouldn't tell the truth because Sandra didn't know who he was. Sandra believed the lie easily because she trusted what Clementine said about him not doing anything "too bad".**

**Fun fact: I had to delete a scene about Clem having a nightmare involving AJ because it was too much filler sadly.** **Perhaps** **in the future I could make a story with the focus on AJ and how he's dealing with his loss.**


	12. Chapter 10

**AN: Sorry for the wait. I recently got Dark Souls 2 and Skyrim and I was playing the hell out of them so it's completely my fault for taking so long. This chaper was supposed to be out over two weeks ago.**

-Review response-

TheWalkingDead: **Thanks for the review. I am glad that you're enjoying the story. And 7.5 out of 10? As an amateur writer I'll take that rating with pride. I hope you stick around.**

thedarkpokemaster: **You'll see...**

cutiepie: **Someone steals the spotlight :(**

Supernova1219: **Yeah I agree. I'll look for a way to extend the lengths of chapters when we hit Hershel's farm. Thanks for the praise, I really appreciate it. On the side note I may be starting a side project that focuses on Clementine through AJ's memories. Look out for the name "Through his eye's" in the future if I decide to do it.**

CRed1988: **You wonder what happens next? I guess you'll have to read it to find out ;)**

Worker72: **Hm I wonder why people couldn't look past that. I was okay with Clementine not being playable because I really liked Javier's character. I have also planned to do that.**

Mircoss: **That's a really good idea but she won't do that until she gets AJ back.(And when they get there the Erickson kids will be facing there own problems.)**

MedicusAestus**: I know and I'm sorry. You'll get it soon though.**

-Line break-

About 3 second passed at this time and Sandra and Lee were already on their feet. The man's eyes fixated on two of them and his face twisted into a feral snarl before he let out a bloodthirsty cry that made Sandra step back in fear. He raised one of his hands and hit the window with a hammer fist strike, sending spider web cracks through the glass.

It continued to strike the glass ruthlessly with each blow making the cracks grow larger.

"What the hell is wrong with him!?" Lee said.

"I don't know!" Sandra said with panic evident in her voice.

Sandra did not know what was going and she didn't have much time to think because that glass wasn't going to hold much longer.The man stepped back from the glass and yelled savagely at the two of them and arced its body forward.

Sandra knew what it was getting ready to do. The fucker was planning to ram into the glass...!

"Sandra the gun!" Clementine's voice rang out from behind.

Sandra's eyes glanced around the room and saw the the shotgun leaning on the couch closest the the sliding door. Sandra cursed at herself for panicking and stepping back because she had increased her distance between her and the firearm.

She made a mad dash for the gun and just before she got to it, the guy charged into the glass shattering it. Shards of glass dug into its flesh drawing blood. However it didn't seem not register the damage that it received.

Sandra was close enough to grab the gun but there was no way she was going to get the chance to shoot it while being this close to the guy. Deciding to not to risk it she instead drew her hammer and readied herself for the imminent attack

Then with an awkward twitch of its head it screamed loudly before charging straight at her with its arms spreaded wide.

To Sandra's credit, she reacted fast to the freak's rapid advance and swung her hammer with all of her strength.

_THWACK!_

The sound of flesh and bone being split filled the air.

Sandra's swing hit home.

The freak's head snapped to the left as Sandra's hammer made contact, sending a short sputtle blood on to her face and the wall nearby.

She raised the hammer again and readied for another swing but suddenly the man's fist shot forward blindly in an upwards arc, striking her just above her gum line. The punch had her seeing stars and knocked her down to the floor.

Clementine watching the scene unfold infront of her made her mind race.

This wasn't supposed to happen. She was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of this...thing.

The gun was safely hidden away and she couldn't risk leaving them to fend for themselves. Lee was already banged up from the crash and Sandra was already at the mercy of this thing. If she disappears now they could both be in serious danger. But what could she do in this small body?

She was already at Sandra's side with her screw driver drawn. She thought back at the manner of attack it used. It tried to rush down Sandra and it would have succeeded if she hadn't reacted fast enough. Even so, Sandra was still within range of its counter attack. While it wasn't very precise or coordinated, it still had a lot of power behind. Enough to knock the daylights out of Sandra.

With this in mind she came up with a plan. She decided that she would use the thing's momentum against it. When it comes at her she duck to the right making it miss its charge. With her being a small target she could avoid its initial attack and counter with one of her own. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to land a decisive strike to end the this thing because of the height difference between them so instead she was going to do the next best thing.

She was going to cripple him. The most dangerous thing that the guy had going for him was his speed. Just how fast could this fucker going to move with a screw driver in between his knee joint?

Recovering from the previous attack, the freak's eyes found her standing to the left of Sandra's downed form. It growled while barring its teeth at her. However before it could attack her Lee moved. He rushed over to the guy with an awkward limp and pulled him into a headlock before he could take a step towards the two girls.

It reacted violently by thrusting around like a caged animal in Lee's grip while pulling him around the room, knocking him into furniture and other household appliances.

Clementine had to abandon her previous plan because she couldn't get an opening. If she did, she would risk stabbing Lee because of the erratic movement. With the freak distracted Clementine went back to Sanda and tried to pull her back to reality. She held Sandra head and looked straight in her eye. He eyes lacked clarity and she but the did react to her touch.

"Come on Sandra, you have to get up!!"

Meanwhile Lee was still trying to keep the freak at bay.

"I need you to calm the fuck down!" Lee tried to reason to with no avail. This person's human side had deteriorated long ago and what was left this feral creature that hid behind a human face.

Suddenly Lee felt pain flair in his lower abdomen and the wind nearly get knocked out of him as the man's elbow crashed into his ribs. Lee's grip loosen at the sudden pain and it seemed to notice this. Now with renewed efforts it tried to free it's self thrashing more violently. Lee tried to tighten his hold only for the man to throw his head back, hitting Lee on the ridge of his of his nose.

It made his eyes water and he felt a warm liquid trickle down past his lips.

The freak felt Lee's grip loosen once more and wrestled itself free. It started to turn to face Lee but before it could turn around completely and unload on Lee, he shoved him away to put some distance between them.

However luck seemed to be in Lee's favor because the small coffee table in the livingroom was directly behind the freak. It's footing was awkward because Lee had shoved it mid-step so one of its legs were no longer planted on the floor and the other was against the coffee table. Because of this, it didn't have any room to recover so it fell backwards crashing into the T.V. stand making the T.V. to fall on it.

This of course didn't do much damage but instead served to slow it down.

Lee took a few moments to think looked and around the room for a weapon. To his dismay the shotgun was knocked away and was no where in sight. It was probably under something but he had no time to look for it.

"Lee!"

He heard Clementine call out and turned to face her. She was holding Sandra's hammer her hand and threw it at him with a underhand throw.

Lee caught it and turned to face the aggressor that was that was no longer underneath the T.V.

It stood on both legs with its arms forced down to it's sides in a barely contained manner. It's fist were clenched so tightly that its fingernails dung into the palms of its hands, making blood flow freely between its fingers. It's chest rising and falling with greatly labored breathing and saliva dropped from its mouth making it appear even more feral.

With all these thing stacked up one could say that this thing was royally pissed.

With a loud scream it bolted at Lee.

Lee rised the hammer and with a battle cry his own, swung it downwards once it was in range and the freak did the same.

_CRACK_

Lee's swing hit reached it's target before before the man's did. It partially had to do with Lee being taller and that meant that the guy's fist would have to travel a bit further before it could reach it's target. It also had to do with that the hammer offered a little more range than one's fist.

It's own fist sailed past it's intended target striking nothing but empty air.

Once Lee's attack hit, its legs seemed to give and fell back like a sack of bricks.

Lee stepped foward and adopted an offensive posture just incase it wasn't over. He looked at the guy's downed form and saw that his chest didn't show any sign of breathing and eyes stayed halfway open staring at nothing.

He was dead.

After verifying this, Lee turned and to look at the two girls. Sandra was thankfully on her feet with some help from Clementine.

"You guys okay?" He asked.

"...Yeah, did you get him?" She said while nursing her face.

"Think so."

Sandra shifted her gaze to the guy on the ground.

Upon closer inspection Sandra saw his eyes start glaze and turn that awful milk white color followed by a twitch of its hand.

"Lee look out!"

A low groan escaped it's lips and it started to push itself for Lee.

_!_

Sudden Lee felt his legs shift position. Before he could even react he found his foot planted firmly on the monster's chest effectively pinning it to the floor and haulting further advances.

Lee rised the hammer and brought it down multiple times on the monster's skull.

_SQUELCH!_

The monster's skull gave way and the hammer got stuck within it. With a pull Lee released it from its prison along with brain matter and bone fragments that followed.

Looking at the sight before her, Sandra felt stomach churn and slouched over. Right before emptying the contents of her stomach.

-Chapter end-

**AN: In this chapter I wanted to show off how dangerous the viral is and its unpredictability. As you saw, close range combat is not advised. These things have a considerably high pain tolerance so if the damage that is inflicted on them that isn't fatal it will continue to push forward. They will rapidly advance towards survivors making the window to shoot it small. The chances of winning a one on one with a viral is are low because it's body is operating at 100% capacity so this thing with catch you if you try to run and will hit much harder than you if you decide to fight it. Also notice how it prioritized getting itself free rather than reach blindly at its attacker? These things aren't very smart but they aren't dumb either.**


	13. Chapter 11

**AN: Sorry for taking so long to update. The reason for that is going to be at the end of this chapter.**

-Review response-

Guest: **Um okay?**

jon12231223: **Long wait I know but here it is.**

DodemGM: **I downloaded dark souls 1 and it came out for free back in 2014 and I became a huge fan. Not to mention I enjoy playing challenging games.**

Jakobkevin: **Its possible. And if that's the case then that would mean the stranger would probably so up too. Clementine might not take that well...**

Worker72: **Thats what Clementine will have to improvise is those do end up not showing up.**

Ericdragon: **Badass Lee is definitely back.**

Guest:**Yup and soon.**

UnspokenTheWriter: **I am a huge fan of dying light and do plan to add different variants of infected. Unfortunately the volatiles are no go because this virus isn't mutagenic and volatiles are kind of OP. The goons have a much better chance of making it but they would be quite rare. Since the virus isn't mutagenic the person who becomes a goon would have to be crazy buff already. If you have any ideas on how it could work PM me.**

sephchipmuch: **Yeah maybe a little but Ibthink it was worth it.**

Darthcat13: **I can see why. Those things are quite relentless.**

Lord Raven Reborn: **Thanks!**

-Line break-

Sandra tried to stop the the bile from rising from her stomach but failed miserably. The sight of a smashed open human skull proved to be too much for her handle.

Clementine couldn't fault her for her strong reaction. In fact, she thought it was better this way.

Sandra needed this.

It wasn't going to be the first or last time she saw something like this so Sandra needs to build up her tolerance for sights like this.

Clementine inwardly cringed at how morbid that sounded. She strolled past Sandra and made her way towards the body but Lee saw her approach and stepped in front of the body.

Clementine looked up at him with confusion etched on her features

"A kid your age shouldn't have to see things like this." Said Lee.

Her eyebrows scrunched up in annoyance at that."I need to verify something." She said in a straight foward manner.

Lee opened with mouth to reply but someone beat him to it.

"Let her..." Sandra said mostly recovered

Lee looked at her like she grew a second head."You couldn't hardle looking at this mess, what makes you think that she could?"

"Because she isn't just any kid. If she was then we'd both be dead already.."

Clementine definitely isn't a normal kid, his patched up wounds and the girl's strangely advanced vocabulary was proof of that. Even so it still didn't sit well with him.

"Lee..." Sandra pushed.

Lee turned his gaze towards the little girl.

"You sure you can do this?" Lee asked seriously.

Clementine nodded.

Lee stood there for a few moments and with sigh, Lee begrudgingly stepped aside and let the girl pass.

Clementine's reaction, or rather the lack thereof shocked him.

She merely gave a casual glance at the monster's smashed in skull before moving her eyes lower to inspect the exposed parts of the body. First starting at the neck then down to its forearms and finally its calves. Unsatisfied with her findings she continued to look until she found something that caught her eye.

There was blood on the corpse's upper sleeve that matted the cloth to its skin. The sleeve didn't appear to have any damage which suggested that it was inflicted beforehand and perhaps there was an attempt to hide it.

She knelt down and pulled up its sleeve to see a poorly bandaged wound. It was obviously done in hurry and looked like it was ready to fall off. So much in fact that the only thing keeping it on was old blood sticking to the bandage.

One of her small hands reached for the bandage and before Lee could protest she snatched one of the cleaner sides of the bandage and ripped it off in a single motion.

"Bitten..." Lee heard the girl mutter under her breath.

With the bandage removed a deep bite wound was visible. The flesh was pulled back and there was multiple teeth groves embedded in the flesh.

Clementine looked at it with an unreadable look on her face until asynchronous moaning started coming from the backyard with the sound of something banging on the fence.

"Oh shit..." Sandra said outloud.

"Don't worry they won't get in." Clementine said confidently.

"What if one like that guy comes?" Sandra asked.

"If there were more then they would already be on top of us by now."

Sandra stayed silent for a couple of seconds before nodding in agreement.

Sandra looked at the body and flinched.

"So what do we do with...that?"

"Leave it be. Those thing out there eat human flesh and if we drag it outside the monsters won't loose intrest and leave."

"So what did you find out when you took a look at the body?" Lee asked.

Clementine looked at Lee.

"I'll tell you after you get that cleaned up." She said pointing at his bloodied nose.

"While you do that, me and Sandra will decide on what are gonna do about the door."

"Okay but call me if you two need help." Lee said before walking off.

Clementine moved to couch that had been knocked over during Lee's scuffle with the monster.

"Can you help me move this?"

"Yeah sure." Sandra said as she got on the opposite end.

Together they pulled and while they were lifting Sandra spotted the shotgun that was displaced during the scuffle. With the couch sitting up the pushed it up against the broken sliding door.

In all honesty it looked absolutley pathetic.

But it was better then nothing.

(_Meanwhile)_

Lee was in the bathroom washing the blood from his hand. He was taking what happened just in the last ten mintues.

He had killed someone, again.

The first time had been an accident but that didn't make it any better.

Murder was still murder.

Then he did it today, right infront of a little girl and her own babysitter. In his defense, he did it to protect those two and himself.

Sandra told him about the dead coming back but that guy definitely wasn't dead. Well, untill he put that hammer to his skull.

Even so could he have handled the situation better?

He thought back and realised no, he did all he could. Lee tried to reason with the man but it had no effect.

He remembered the look in the man's eyes reflecting nothing but the desire to maim and kill the person before it. Even so, Lee pull the guy into a headlock and tried to pin him to the wall or the floor but it wasn't possible.

The guy seemed to possess almost inhuman amount of strength and Lee found himself being dragged around the room even though he should have had the advantage. But in the end it all amounted to nothing.

While he was thinking back on it he realized something strange happened. Stranger than some crazy guy attacking them and coming back from the dead? No. But it was still something nonetheless.

It happened when Sandra gave him a heads up when the dead guy tried to get a hold of him when he wasn't looking. Before he could even think about his next action his body had moved on its own volition

He splashed some water on his face and washed away the reminisce of his bloodied nose before washing the blood off the rest of the rest of his face. He opened his eyes and looked into the mirror only to see Sandra.

Or rather her _corpse._

She stood behind him with her hair wild and unkempt, her clothes were torn and at the base of her neck she sported a nasty looking bite. Her skin seemed to be entering that later stages of necrosis yet she was still standing before him in all of her rotting glory.

For a moment Lee froze as dozens of questions shooting though his mind. What the fuck happened? He was only away for 3 minutes at most and he didn't hear anything at all. He didn't even hear her enter the room!

With aggressive groan she lunged at Lee. Lee snapped out his initial shock and spun around to face her but nothing was there.

He leaned against the sink for support and a rubbed his eyes.

'First the dead start walking, a crazy guy come crashing through the glass and now I'm having hallucinations?'

-Line break-

Sandra and Clementine where still inside of the living room. Clementine had thrown a cover over the body so Sandra wouldn't have to look at it. Sandra was currently armed with the shotgun though it still only had one shot. Clementine told her that she should avoid using it unless it was the only option.

Clementine wondered briefly if Sandra could actually shoot it properly. She doubted Sandra had much experience with guns but didn't dwell on it.

It was a shotgun after all. It's not exactly hard to hit your target with one of those.

Clementine was more worried about what would happen if it were to come to that. If that gun is fired the sound would draw every single walker left the neighborhood would make there way here. So their time would be limited to make an escape. They couldn't take much because it would slow them down too much along with Lee's messed up leg. Not to mention that there could be would more of those crazies that might be drawn to the sound of the gunshot that would both further decrease the time that they have to escape and the likelihood of them surviving.

With this in mind Clementine needed to do something. She didn't want to just sit here and hope that everything goes as planned when there was so much that could go wrong. It was possible that those two boys that showed up before might not have made it this time. If that's the case then she would need to a change of plans.

Those boys arrived late in the afternoon maybe sometime around 6. If they don't make it here by then she would do things her own way.

But until then she wanted to increase there chances of survival even if it meant that she would have to give up something of her own.

"Sandra I need to tell you something." Clementine said out of the blue.

"I'm listening Clem."

There was a brief pause then Clementine huffed showing how much she didn't want to do this. "I...I haven't been completely honest with you lately."

"How so?" Sandra said sounding confused.

"That shotgun isn't our only defense." Clementine admitted.

-Chapter end-

**AN**: **Sorry for taking so long to update. I have no excuse other then I was enjoying my grace period far too much. I'm going to start college soon so expect more updates. The reason why I say this because when I stuff to do I won't play video games as much and it gives me more time to write. And if you didn't already pick up on this before I'll say it right now. I'm an avid gamer and if you notice a slow in my updates you should check and see if any new games came out because it might be possible that I am playing it. This chapter could have came out ages ago if I wasn't grinding borderlands 3 damn that game is fun.**

**Fun fact:** **This chapter was about 93% complete until borderlands 3 came out. The rest is history.**


	14. Status Update

**AN**: **Hey everyone, long time no see eh? Sorry I've kept everyone following this fic in the dark about my current situation. I've been really busy in real life so I couldn't really find time to sit down and write because as soon as I would write down like 2 sentences I would get anxiety about what I had to complete in real life so I would immediately stop writing. Sure these chapter aren't really long so even if I was writing that slow you guys should have seen at least 2 chapters a month. So why weren't they any chapters at all? Well, the truth is I had stopped writting completely. I stopped writing because I wasn't in the right state of mind at the time. The stess that I was under was effecting my writing and I didn't want update because of that reason. I didn't want to post chapters that I wouldn't be proud of later on so I had stopped completely. During this time I stopped reading reviews and replying to PMs to avoid being stessed out further. On January 31, 2020 I was finished with enough things IRL my anxiety that appeared when I was writing was gone. Even so I had decided to give the month of February to myself and play video games and crap lol. There is a lot more I want to say but I'm not quite sure how to put in words at the moment so I'll just leave this right here for now while I read reviews and PMs.**

**_NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE POSTED WITHIN THE NEXT THREE DAYS._**


	15. Chapter 12

**An: Old habits die hard eh? Took me six more days to complete because I was of course, playing games with dah boys. Well this is what happens when you by battle passes for 3 different games. **

-**Review** **response-**

MedicusAestus**: I apologize lmao. That's just me being an idiot XD.**

ActualGreekman: **Thanks man really appreciate your understanding. Sometimes you just gotta rise and grind.**

Thepurplegoo:** I'm *cough* a bit late but I got you bro.**

jakobkevin: **Perhaps.**

JauneJoanArc: **Glad you are! I hope you're still reading.**

CRed1988:** She does indeed!** **I'll try to next time.**

SpinelSpinel8: **This might be a spoiler but only Lee will remember. People that were close to Clementine like Kenny or some others will experience a sense of kinship or familiarity with her.**

Arbiter8991: **Thanks for the constructive criticism. I'm trying my best to improve and I hope to grow along the way.**

Worker72: **I hope to stomp out some of this unpredictable update pattern. So I'll try to make a schedule.**ronnie19: **Ah, another gamer!**

-Line break-

"That shotgun isn't our only defense."

"I know. We have that hammer and your screw driver. Its just that holding it makes me feel safer." Sandra said trying to predict the girl's intention for bringing it up.

Sandra knew the girl was quite observant so she guessed that Clementine noticed how clingy she was with the firearm and wanted to remind her so she wouldn't go fire it off hastily. They did only have one shot after all.

"No," Clementine said with a shake of her head."I'm talking something else Sandra."

"Oh..." Came Sandra's unintelligent response. "So what is it?"

"I need you to promise that you won't take it when I tell you."

Those words set off red flags for Sandra because she knew Clementine was an intelligent girl and if she was acting like this, that probably meant she was talking about something dangerous.

"What is it Clementine?" Sandra asked cautiously

"Promise." The girl said firmly.

Sandra knew that Clementine wasn't going to give any information until she met her criteria so she decided to do as she asked.

"Okay I promise. Now what is it?"

Clementine waited a moment before forcing herself to continue talking.

"My father owns a gun." She managed to get out.

"That's really good news us. Why haven't you told me earlier?" That really confused her. Clementine was so helpful so what made her hold out on such vital information?

"Because its mine now." She said simply.

"No. I know that you're very intelligent for your age but I can't let walk around with something like that."

Clementine felt like facepalming. She knew that kind of information was sensitive and she should have just kept to herself. But because of the incident earlier she had a change of mind. That thing that attacked caused them some real trouble and it proved to be difficult to handle in melee combat. She was not suited for such engagements because of current predicament and Sandra wasn't well off either. Not only was Sandra inexperienced, she also lacked the physical strength needed to defend herself. That meant Lee is the only one able to fight back and he is currently at a disadvantage because of his injuries.

His leg injury would greatly impact his agility and make it difficult to avoid attacks. This also meant that his head and ribs would be further open for attack. On top of this there was the possibly for him needed to defend for the both of them. On top of that, that thing managed to pull Lee around the room like he weightless which meant that even if Lee was in top condition it wouldn't have changed much.

This meant that if another one of those things showed up they would likely have to fall back on the shotgun. And with the last of its ammo spent they would be practically defenseless as countless walkers and possibly more of those things converged on there possition. This would only give them a short window of time to escape. They would probably have to leave most of their things and Lee would have a difficult time keeping up.

Clementine already felt a headache coming on and this didn't even include the possibly of Sandra fucking _missing_.

Some would say she was putting the way too much thought into this and that she was paranoid. But that's why she and AJ lasted so long out there and the same reason those fools laid with the maggots.

The times she strayed from those thoughts terrible things happened. First was the Frontier who stole AJ from her. She at first thought that they could help her keep AJ safe and ease her burden. But when AJ took a turn for the worse they fucking turned their backs on him saying that did "everything" they could to help him and that any more drugs used on him would be wasted. Then they turned their backs on her for taking initiative to keep him alive. She thought that would have been her last mistake because it wounded her deeply.

However she was wrong.

She made another mistake which was staying with those kids at the school. She should have left as soon as she recoved from the car crash. The delta taking children wasn't her problem it was the school's. But she stuck her own neck out and she died because of it. At this point in time she still didn't know why she did it. Maybe because of the personal stake with Lily or perhaps she saw some of herself in those scared kids?

Or maybe because Lee would have?

The reason didn't matter because in the end, she still died.

She wouldn't make anymore mistakes that she could avoid. Especially if her life depended on it. That is why she would be better to tell Sandra about the gun because if worse comes to worse they would at least have that ready at a moments notice. Even if it wasn't her that was using it.

But that didn't mean she would give it up easily.

"The dead are walking the streets, killing everything their sight, and you're worried about me having a means to protect myself?" Clementine said incredulously.

Sandra opened her mouth like she was going to say something but her response seemed to die in her mouth. At first she was going to shut her down immediately but then she froze up as she thought about what good came from her own decision.

She realised that she would have been dead for multiple times already if it wasn't for Clementine.

"...Do you know how to use it?" Sandra said slowly.

Clementine was actually surprised by that response. Apart from her eyes widening a bit, she exhibited no other visible indications.

Why was Sandra considering this? This was the first thought that came to her mind. She was almost certain that she would have lost her possession immediately because she was merely bluffing after all. Did she leave a better impression on her than she had expected? Well, she _did_ save her life multiple times and show of quite a bit of her intelligence and foresight before hand so maybe that had amounted for more than she had first thought.

Recovering quickly from her momentary surprise, she gave Sandra a look of utmost confidence.

"Yes." She replied with a certain firmness in her voice.

Her reply was all Sandra needed for now.

-Line break-

The next few minutes went by quickly.

Once Clementine was in the clear with Sandra she wasted no time retrieving her father's gun. She sat at the counter on one of the tall chairs and infront of her was her weapon. She sat quietly fiddling with the thing on her own. Being within close proximity of the thing seemed to put her in a good mood because as she was working with it, her legs started to swing back and forth, unbeknownst to herself.

Lee enters the living room by this time and sees that Sandra was sitting on a single seat recliner. He looks at her for a couple moments while thinking about that strange hallucination that he saw while he was in the bathroom. He shakes the eerie feeling off.

"Ahm" Clementine coughed to get their attention.

"Now that's everyone is here we can now discuss our next course of action."

She hopped off the tall chair went over to Lee and Sandra.

As she was walking toward him, Lee noticed something in her hand. Upon recognizing the object, his eyes widened and he began to speak.

"Is that a-"

"Yes." Clementine cut him of because she knew what he was going to say.

"Why do you have-" He stopped himself from scolding the 8 year old and turned to Sandra, the person who was allowing this to happen. "Why are you letting her hold that thing?"

"She knows how to use it." Sandra like that made it any better.

"But she's just a kid!" Lee whisper shouted.

"And it's the end of the world." Sandra shot back.

"We don't have time to argue, we need to discuss our next course of action." Clementine stated calmly.

Sandra quieted down and looked at Clementine. Seeing Sandra do this, he decided to let it go for now and listen to the girl.

"We need go get out of here. It's not safe anymore."

"I thought we were gonna hold out for the military?" Sandra said.

"There's been a change of plans. The perimeter of the house has already been breached and we are in the middle of a neighborhood full of dead people which, in turn, are probably those shambling monsters outside." Clementine explained.

"What you're saying is making sense, but how are we going to get out of here? Those things are crowding the fence back there and I can only assume that there are more of them out that front door." Said Lee warily.

"We wait for now. Those things outside are mostly attracted by sound so if we stay quiet and out of sight for a while, they should start leaving." said Clementine.

"Now that you mention that, that thing earlier didn't follow seem to you said right now."

"That's correct. That's the first one that we have seen act that why. What you saw earlier was not the usual occurrence. When you allowed me to look at the corpse, I came to the conclusion that he ended up that way because he was bitten."

"But that doesn't make any sense. If that was the cause, why didn't the cop or the other act that way?" Sandra interjected.

"You didn't let me finish. He was bitten and survived. The monsters that we have seen before are either entering the later stages of necrosis or they have fatal bodily wounds. This thing that attacked us suffered from neither of the two afflictions." Clementine explained thoroughly.

"Are you sure its a good idea to go outside if their are more like that?" Sandra questioned.

"Yes because I don't believe there are more in our general vicinity. If there were, then we would have had quite the welcome party. Fortunately for us, we were only greeted by the shambling ones outside."

Sandra sighed in relief.

"Finally some good news."

"Well since we went over I would like to go back to our previous topic. Since Lee is injured we aren't gonna be able to go by foot. Sandra, do you have your keys?" Clementine asked.

Sandra felt her pockets before laughing anxiously.

"...What's wrong?" Said Lee.

"I think I lost them."

-Chapter end-

**An: Clementine gets to keep her father's pistol for now. Sandra ended up letting her keep it because she knows Clementine is smart and right now Sandra isn't confident in her own decision making. Lee on the other hand has already voiced his displeasure the matter but set it aside because there are important things to do.**


End file.
